Lost & Found
by TheFairytaleAuthor
Summary: In 4675, Autumn Skies was taken back in time by a Weeping Angel. Now in 2020, Autumn joined a team to protect the Earth while looking for a way back home. When she meets the Doctor and he tells her that the trip back home is impossible, she is devastated. But maybe two scarred people can heal each other. First in The Seasons Collection. (9/OC)
1. Down Under: 2020

_Hello, I'm the FairytaleAututhor, my previous account was XXLWXXAHXXATXXEOXXEMXXRPXX and this is the first story in The Seasons Collection, Lost & Found . This story will be around 39 chapters and will be_ updated _weekly. The first three chapters will be original but the rest of the story will be a revision of series 1 to incorporate my OC, Autumn Skies. Enjoy and please R &R._

 _Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who, but I do own Autumn Skies._

 _P.S: Some of you might be wondering when I'm going to put the rewrite of my story Closure (which I have renamed Unremembered) but I don't think it will be up until next year because I have about 20 other fics to write so I'm really busy._

 _P.P.S: If you would like to watch the trailer for this story it's on Youtube._

* * *

Down Under: 2020

 _Autumn Skies stalked through the forest, her gun out in front of her._

 _The defense team that she worked for had picked up signals of unusual alien life forms and she had been sent to investigate._

 _She moved a branch out of the way and walked into a clearing where an old house stood._

 _The house was made of rotting wood and vines coated the outside. There was a collapsed rocking chair on the porch, the steps to which were sunken in._

 _It was surrounded by weeds and an old maple tree stood proud, blocking the view of a window. Scattered all around the garden of the house were statues of angels which had withstood the course of time better than the rest of the house._

 _As she eyed the house Autumn couldn't help but feel a sense of forboading fill her, like something bad was about to happen._

 _Autumn shook the feeling off and approached the house warily, looking around for any hiding places. She paused in front of the steps and glanced at one of the closer statues._

 _That feeling that something was about to go wrong was still there, like a weight in her stomach that she couldn't remove. Autumn closed her eyes a second and breathed in and out before opening her eyes again._

 _Autumn frowned at the statue that she had glanced at; She was sure that it had been further away from her than that. Suddenly, a twig snapped and Autumn whipped her head in that direction._

 _Unseen by Autumn the angel statue reached out to her slowly. The angel placed a hand on her shoulder and Autumn turned her head back but it was too late..._

Autumn gasped awake, righting herself in bed. She ran a hand through her blonde hair and swallowed hard. She'd been having that nightmare for over 7 months now and it still scared her to death.

She supposed it made sense, it was the worse and most scary moment of her life after all. The moment she lost her family and her home. The moment she lost everything.

The statue that had touched her was called a Weeping Angel. They were aliens that displaced people back in time and lived of the potential engergy of the life they could have had.

The Angel had taken her from the year 4675 to the year 2020. It had taken her back 2655 years. Which was _a_ _lot_ further than any other Weeping Angel victim but, as far as she could tell, it was just random.

When she had arrived in 2020 she had been completely confused but then a team simmilar to the one that she had worked for in her time had arrived and they had explained the Weeping Angels to her.

Once they had explained it to her they had gotten her a life here. They got her an apartment, which she shared with a girl called Cindy, who was an ally of the team and knew all about aliens.

Eventually, they had offered her a job on their team. They had said that her knowledge from the future and being a different species would help.

So, for 7 months she had been working with them. Tracking down aliens and saving Earth from the bad ones and helping the good ones. All the while she was looking for a way back to the future, but had no such luck.

She knew that several other species knew how to time travel but she had yet to meet any of them. And she worried that she never would, that she would never see her family again.

Autumn jumped slightly as her mobile phone vibrated on the her bedside table, the screen lighting up.

She picked it up and saw that it was her boss Brian, which she had suspected; no one else would call this late.

She put it up to her ear, "Brian." she greeted.

"Autumn!" he exclaimed, sounding... excited, which was... odd to say the least. Brian was usually always so stressed and serious, "You'll never guess what."

"Just tell me, Brian." Autumn sighed.

"Right, sorry." Brian almost laughed, "That trace you set up it's found something."

Autumn gasped and her heart leapt in her chest. She felt like she had been hit full force by a train, but in a good way.

When she had started to work for the team she had set up a program to look for any trace of life forms that could time travel. And it had found something. This was it, the moment she had waited seven months for; the chance to go home

"What species did it pick up?" she asked, already halfway out of bed.

"That's the most unbelievable part." Brian told her, "It picked up Time Lord technology."

XXX

Autumn stalked through the halls of one of the buildings in the UCL campus, the place where they had picked up the Time Lord tech. Her gun was out in front of her because, not only did they pick up Time Lord tech, but they picked up some other unknown aliens as well.

She was nervous, her heart was pounding, and she was breathing a bit shakily. She couldn't help it, this day could change everything. She could get back everything she had lost or... she'd have to go back to her life in 2020. She didn't think she could do that, not after being so close to getting back home.

She turned the corner just as a man in a leather jacket was walking down the hall. He stopped when he saw her, his eyes widening slightly when he saw the gun.

"Who are you?" she demanded.

She had to be very careful. He could be a Time Lord, if there was even a Time Lord there in the first place. They had only picked up Time Lord technology, _not_ an actual Time Lord. Another, toatally different speicies, could have stolen the tech or scavenged it. She knew for a fact that there were other aliens in the building, but she didn't know what species so she had to tread carefully.

"I'm the Doctor." he replied, "And who are you?"

"I'm Autumn." she told him, "What species are you?

"Why do you wanna know that?" he wondered

"Just tell me!" she insisted.

She had to know! She had to know if he could take her home, if the hell she had been in for the last seven months could end.

"I'm a Time Lord." he told her.

She blinked in surprise and took a step back, lowering her gun, "Even with the scan I still didn't believe it." she muttered.

Time Lords were said to be instict, wiped out in the Time War, if they even existed in the first place. The entire species was a legend.

Scan?" the Doctor frowned, having only heard a few words of her mutterings.

"My team picked up traces of Time Lord tech." she replied.

He raised an eyebrow, "Your team?"

"Yes." she nodded, "We protect the world from hostile aliens and protect peaceful aliens from hostile humans."

He eyed her suspiciously for a moment, "There's now way the humans could create a scan that picked up Time Lord technology." he remarked, "Not in this century anyway."

"You're right," she nodded, "They couldn't, but 7 months ago I was transported here from the year 4675 by a species called the Weeping Angels. They agreed that if I helped them with their technology, they'd help me look for aliens that could time travel."

"You want to go home." he realised.

"Yes." she nodded.

"Well, usually I'd take you," he said, "But there's some other aliens here and I don't know what there up to. They could be hostile."

"Right." she nodded, her heart sinking.

All the senarios she went through in her head, none them were like this which was very niave and unlike her. She let her hope and her desire to go home cloud her judgement.

"If I manage to stop them I'll take you home afterwards." he offered.

"Thanks." she replied, her heart lifting; he _would_ take her, "But I was also sent here to investigate the other aliens. So," she walked past him then turned to look at him, "C'mon, It will be easier with two of us."


	2. Down Under: The Oxyoles

_Hello! First, thank you for all the follows/favorites/reviews, especially the two reviews, I really appreciate it! So, this is the second chapter, I hope you enjoy it! Read and Review, please!_

 _Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who_

 _P.S: Italics in speech marks means telepathic speaking or speaking over a phone._

Down Under: The Oxyoles

"Do you know what species they are?" Autumn asked as she and the Doctor walked down the hall.

"No." he replied.

"Where are we going?" she frowned as they reached a door that said 'Basement entrance' on it.

"Underground." he answered as he opened the door to reveal a set of stairs.

"Why?" she wondered as she followed him down the stairs.

"There's been a few mini earthquakes around here." he told her, "And since that's extremely unlikely I thought..."

"That they had something do with it." Autumn finished for him.

He nodded, "Exactly."

The reached the bottom of the stairs and entered a small dusty room which contained a few old cleaning supplies, but was mostly empty.

They looked around and Autumn caught sight of a hatch on the floor. She bent down and started to open it, "There's a hatch." she told the Doctor.

The Doctor came and bent down beside her as she managed to get it open. They peered down before looking back at each other.

"Tunnels." Autumn whispered.

XXX

Autumn and the Doctor trekked through the tunnels in silence. They had been down there for hours now and they hadn't found anything useful.

Just as Autumn was about to suggest they search somewhere else, she spotted a hole in the wall about the size of an average human child.

She walked over to and peered inside, "There's a hole." she muttered to the Doctor and he came over to look as well. Inside the hole there was another tunnel, though this time the walls weren't made of metal like the one they were in. The walls were made of dirt and so was the floor. Weeds and vines were dotted across the floor and along the walls.

"Someone made this." Autumn pointed out, "Could be who we're looking for."

She bent down and shimmied her way into the tunnel, pausing to wait as the Doctor did the same before walking down the tunnel.

The tunnel was bendy with lots of twists and turns unlike the other tunnel with had been strait.

They walked for a few minutes until they reached a circular room and stopped dead.

In the room there was hundreds of creatures that looked like a mix between a mole and a fox. And they were all busy, one was hammering something while another looked like it was trying to make some food.

At the other end of the room there was a platform that was made of bamboo and on top of it there was a throne, also made of bamboo, with another mole/fox creature on it.

"What are they?" Autumn asked the Doctor quietly. The moles hadn't noticed them yet and she didn't want to draw attention to them.

"Oxyoles." he replied.

Autumn frowned as she eyed the Oxyoles, she had never hear of them so she didn't know anything about them. Not their strengths or their weakness'. She didn't even know if they were peaceful or hostile.

Suddenly, the mole on the throne, the leader Autumn presumed, spotted them.

"Intruders!" it cried, pointing a bamboo stick/staff with a red glass sphere on top of it at them, making everyone look at them.

The Doctor put his hands up surrender and Autumn reluctantly did the same, "We come in peace." he told the leader.

The leader eyed them for a moment, seeming to calm down, until he caught sight of Autumn's gun that was tucked into the waistband of her jeans.

His eyes widened, "They're liars!" he yelled, "She has a weapon!"

Autumn looked down at her gun and winced, "It was just for self defence." she tried to say but they ignored her.

"Seize them!" the leader ordered and a group of Oxyoles started towards them.

"Run." the Doctor oredered.

But, before Autumn could make it even five steps away, she was grabbed by a Oxyole from behind. She let out a grunt and struggled in the hold as the Doctor turned to look at her.

"Go!" she yelled as she saw him just standing there, she wanted at least one of them to escape and if he got away he might be able to help her get out. Not that she needed any help. When he still didn't move she yelled again, "Go!"

The Doctor hesitated a moment before he nodded and ran from the room, leaving Autumn to be dragged of by the Oxyoles.

XXX

Autumn was sat in a cage made of bamboo sticks. After they had dragged her away the leader had order her to be imprisoned.

They were going to put her on trial later for trespassing and threatening with a lethal weapon even though she never threatened anybody. Well, except the Oxyoles that had dragged her away but that was after she'd been accused, so that didn't count.

A few Oxyoles were pacing in front of the cage to make sure she didn't escape, although they weren't watching her very closely, they seemed to have a lot of faith in their cage, which was probably misplaced. Since it was basically made out of sticks.

Autumn huffed and lent back against the wall that the cage was against. There was no way they would vote her innocent, even though she was. The king or leader seemed like a person who would never admit that he was wrong, so even if she explained that she had the gun for self defense and she was only planning to use it if they threatened her or turned out to be hostile, she had a feeling that he would still lock her up. Or kill her. She didn't know what exactly the sentence was.

Autumn looked up when another Oxyole walked into the room and whispered into one of the other's ears. The other Oxyole gestured for all the Oxyoles in the room to join them, whispering to them until they all left the room in a line.

Autumn stared at them incredulously, were they really going to leave a prisoner unattended in a cell made of sticks?

Oh, well. Their stupidity was her luck.

Autumn quickly dug through her pockets and pulled out a lighter and the spare bullets she kept in her pocket. She was quite surprised when they didn't search her, clearly they weren't used to having prisoners.

She grabbed one of the bullets and emptied out the gun powder onto one of the bamboo sticks and positioned the lighter above the pile. She flicked the lighter on and the gunpowder caught alight, burning the bamboo.

Autumn waited a few minutes until one of the bamboo sticks was burnt enough that it started wilting. She surged forward and kicked the wilting stick, knocking it out of the cage.

She smirked and quickly slid through the opening she had just made and walked over to a table made of a tree stump and grabbed the gun they had taken from her, shoving in the waistband of her jeans before striding out of the room.

XXX

The Doctor jogged up to the console of the TARDIS, ready to rescue Autumn when he heard a voice echo in his head.

' _Doctor?'_ the voice said, sounding like Autumn.

He frowned, ' _Autumn?'_ he called back.

' _Where are you?'_

 _'How are you doing that?'_ he asked, ' _Humans can't use telepathy.'_

 _'I'm not human, I'm Ayries.'_

His eyebrows raised in slight surprise, Ayries' were quite similar to Time Lords. in the sense that they both aged slowly, though Ayries couldn't regenerate like Time Lord's could. Their morals and beliefs were completely different.

' _I am one sixteenth human, though.'_ Autumn told him in his mind, breaking him out of his thoughts, ' _Where are you?'_

 _'In the TARDIS.'_ he replied, ' _Where are you?"_

 _'The tunnels that the Oxyoles made.'_

 _'You escaped?'_ he asked in slight surprise, _'How?'_

 _'They put me in a cage made of bamboo.'_ she told him, _'It wasn't hard. Are you coming down?'_

 _'Yeah, I'll meet you by the entrance of the Oxyole tunnels.'_

 _'Okay.'_ Autumn replied.

The Doctor ran around the console, piloting the ship to the tunnels.


	3. Down Under: Home

_Thanks again for all the follows/favorites/reviews, they mean a lot._

Down Under: Home

Autumn turned a corner and blinked as she saw a blue police box standing at the end of the tunnel. The doors to the police box opened and the Doctor stepped out.

"So TARDISes really are bigger on the inside." she commented, not sure if she was shocked or amazed at the technology that went into making it.

"Yeah." he nodded.

"Come on." she span around and started to lead the way back to the Oxyole lair.

As they walked the Doctor kept glancing at Autumn. He didn't know what to make of the girl, she was obviously brave; most people would have begged for him to save them rather than for him to leave. And she managed to escape by herself, which, he had to admit, he was a little impressed with; most of his past companions would have waited until he could save them, without really trying to escape.

He could tell that she hid her feelings behind a mask of indifference, he did much the same. She was obviously hit hard when the Weeping Angel took her back in time and she lost her family, he could understand what that was like. But he could tell that she and her family must have been close, while he hardly ever saw his. And she defended the Earth on a regular basis which was something he could respect.

He shook of those thoughts; he needed to focus on the Oxyoles and what they were doing. It was strange, Oxyoles where usually peaceful to the point of idiocy. Usually the would have never reacted they way they had in a million years.

He started muttering to himself, going through all the theories in his head, ignoring the odd looks Autumn was giving him.

He scrunched his eyebrows together in thought when suddenly his eyes widened, "Of course!" he exclaimed.

"What?" Autumn asked.

"The leader," he turned to her, "He's not an Oxyole! He's from the Oxyole's twin planet. They've had a grudge against the Oxyoles for centuries. That's why they reacted like that! Oxyoles are peaceful, they'd never imprison anyone. He must have done something."

"Done what?" she asked.

"I don't know." he shook his head, shrugging, "Hypnotism, mind control, something."

Autumn shook her head, "That would take enormous amounts of energy." she remarked, " _And_ there would have to be a rather large machine to control and..." she suddenly stopped, trailing off in thought, "Unless..." she frowned a moment before nodding, "Blood control." she muttered, "It would be easy to hide and Oxyoles don't have different blood types like humans do, so he could control them all."

He nodded along, it made sense, "And that would explain the earthquakes." he added, "The pulses from the blood controller would go right through the Earth. It would be different if it came from a spaceship, the pulses would just go into the atmosphere and disappear, but since it's underground..."

"We just need to break the control, then." Autumn reasoned, "The Oxyoles will deal with the rest after."

He nodded, "I've got a plan."

XXX

Autumn was waiting by one of the entrances to the circle room that the Oxyoles had been in. The plan the Doctor had come up with was very simple and could easily go wrong in a million different ways, but she didn't have a better plan so she had to go along with it.

She peeked around the corner, into the room, waiting for her cue. The plan was for the Doctor to distract them and for her to destroy the blood controller. They'd worked out that it was inside the sphere on top of the leader's staff.

She watched as the Doctor came into the room, carrying a gas canister that was actually empty, but the Oxyoles didn't know that. The Doctor told them that it was Hyole gas, a gas that the people of the Oxyole's twin planet, who were called Hyoles, had made. It was harmless to every species except Oxyoles.

He threatened to release the gas unless she was released and the Oxyoles left Earth. Taking a moment when they were distracted, Autumn crept into the room. The entrance that she'd entered from was a few steps behind the leader's throne so she just had to grab it and turn it off.

But, she wasn't expecting a guard to be standing right behind the leader's throne. Autumn and guard's eyes both widened before the Oxyole shouted for the other guards and she was soon standing in the middle of the room with the Doctor next to her and a guard flanking her on either side.

She let out a irritated breath and rolled her eyes as the leader went on and on about their crimes.

She eyed the blood controller from where she was. The leader had left his throne and was pacing before them. His staff was standing next to the throne, leaning on it slightly.

Autumn shifted and discreetly reached for her gun. She pulled it out of her waistband and let it hang by her side, "Hey!" she suddenly shouted and everyone turned to her. She aimed her gun and pulled the trigger.

The bullet sped past the leader and crashed into the blood controller. The was a series of sparks and mini explosions before the sphere broke completely.

Autumn smirked in victory as all the Oxyoles blinked and looked around, confused for a moment before their memories caught up to him.

An Oxyole strode up to 'the leader', shaking his head, "How many times are the Hyoles going to try and destroy us?"

The Hyole rolled his eyes, "Until you are actually destroyed!" he exclaimed, "See you later, chumps!" he lifted his wrist and pressed a button on a bracelet that Autumn couldn't quite look at, which meant that it probably had a perception filter on it.

The Hyole disappeared in a flash of blue light and the Oxyole that had talked to him sighed before turning to the Doctor and Autumn, "I'm so very sorry for having imprisoned you." he told Autumn sincerely and Autumn just shrugged, it wasn't his fault so she couldn't hold a grudge, "And I'm sorry for any damage we may have caused this planet."

"It's fine." the Doctor told him, "It wasn't your fault."

The Oxyole nodded, "Well, we'll be leaving and going home as soon as possible, but it was nice to meet you both." he held a hand out and they each shook it, "And thank you for saving us from him."

"You're welcome." the Doctor replied.

"You're welcome on our planet any time." he told them, "Goodbye."

The Doctor and Autumn both bid him goodbye and watched as he went and addressed the crowd of Oxyoles, calming them

XXX

The Doctor and Autumn stood in front of the TARDIS which was still by the entrance of the tunnel.

"Well," the Doctor began, "I promised someone a trip home."

Autumn smiled, anticipation filling her, "Yeah."

"Where is home, anyway?" he asked.

"Colony 246, USA, Earth, 20th June 4675." she replied.

The Doctor's expression morphed, "Oh."

"What?" Autumn asked, a sense of dread filling her.

"That year is full of time distortions." he told her, "If I even TRIED to land there it could rip the planet apart."

Autumn's heart dropped into her stomach.

She could never go home.

Ever.

She would _never_ see her mum or dad again. Or her sister.

A cold feeling spread through as she stared ahead of her. She blinked and wiped a tear away before it could even _think_ about falling.

"I'm sorry." the Doctor said.

"It's not you're fault." she told him blankly.

"Right," he shifted awkwardly, "I best be off then, unless..." he trailed off, hesitating. Did he really want another companion? He would never admit it but he was lonely, and the fact that he was alone just remind him just how alone he was, that he was the last Time Lord left. And he could tell that the girl probably need this. She didn't need to go back to the life she had, it would just remind her of her loss and the hope she once had. She needed something different, "You could come with me."

Autumn looked up at him and raised her eyebrows but didn't say anything.

"You could stay here," he began, "And save the world or you could..."

"Go with you and save other worlds." she cut in. She looked down a moment, thinking about it. She knew she couldn't go back to the life she had, she'd known that the moment she stepped onto the UCL campus, and home wasn't an option so she really had no where to go. And she had always wanted to protect people, and she had, in both times she'd been in. Maybe she could save people from every time period and planet. She looked back up at him, her decision made, "Where are we going first?"

"Wherever you want." he told her, holding open the door to the TARDIS for her.

She walked into the TARDIS followed by the Doctor, "How about..."

Deep underground UCL campus there was a wheezing noise and the TARDIS disappeared.


	4. Rose: Run

Rose: Run!

Autumn Skies stood in a lift, staring ahead when the doors opened and a young girl ran in with the Doctor. The doors started to close but one of the shop window dummies that had been chasing them wedged it's arm between them. The Doctor grabbed the arm and pulled it off, letting the doors close.

The girl gaped, "You pulled his arm off!" she exclaimed.

"Evidently." Autumn remarked.

It had been about a month a half since she and the Doctor had met and everywhere they went they seemed to run into trouble, like today. Autumn had wanted to go see her roomate, Cindy, the day after she had left, but the Doctor had piloted the TARDIS wrong and ended up in 2005, not 2020 where he had been aiming. When they had arrived the Doctor had noticed something was wrong so they'd started to investigate.

The Doctor chucked the plastic arm at the girl, "Plasitic."

"Very funny." the girl said, "Nice trick! Who are they then, students? Is this a student thing or what?"

The Doctor glanced back at her, "Why would they be students?"

The girl paused, "...I don't know."

Autumn rolled her eyes.

"Well you said it," he pointed out, "Why students?"

"Cos..." she began hesitentally, "To get that many people dressed up and being silly, they've got to be students."

"That makes sense." he grinned.

"No, it doesn't." Autumn disagreed, "Why would students risk being arrrested _and_ losing their place at uni _just_ to scare one girl they don't even know."

The girl just stared at her and Autumn just nodded as if to say, 'I rest my case.'

"Whoever they are, when Wilson finds them, he's gonna call the poilce." the girl told them.

"Who's Wilson?" the Doctor wondered.

"Cheif electrician." she replied.

"Wilson's dead." he told her bluntly.

The lift pinged, the doors openening, and the Doctor and Autumn stepped out, Rose following them a moment later.

"That's not funny, that's sick!" the girl exclaimed, "I've had enough of this now!"

Autumn rolled her eyes at the girl as the Doctor whipped out his sonic screwdriver and pulled the girl away from the lift, "Hold on, mind your eyes."

He flashed the sonic on the lift controls and they exploded with a small shower of sparks.

The Doctor and Autumn walked away, the girl jogging after them, "Who are you two, then?" she asked, "Who's that lot down there?" they both ignored her, "I said, who are they?"

"They're made of plastic." the Doctor told her, "Living plastic creatures. They're being controlled by a relay device on the roof, which would be a great big problem if we didn't have this." he held up an electrical bomb, "So we're gonna go upstairs and blow them up and we might well die in the process but don't you worry about us, no! You go home, go on, go and have your lovely beans on toast." he opened a fire a door that was at the end of the corridoor they had been walking down and ushered the girl out, "Don't tell anyone about this, cause if you do, you'll get them killed." he slammed the door in her face, leaving the girl outside, severly shaken.

The door suddenly opened again, "I'm the Doctor, by the way." he told her, "And that's Autumn. What's you're name?"

"Rose."

"Nice to meet you, Rose." he grinned.

"Word of advice." Autumn spoke up from behind him, "Run." she reached over and slammed the door again.

XXX

Autumn followed the Doctor as they walked through a block of flats. The Doctor was using his sonic to track the signal of the alien that was controlling the dummies, the Nestene, and it had brought them to a council estate called the Powell Estate and to this block of flats.

The Doctor suddenly stopped and bent down in front of one of the flats, scanning it more closley with his sonic.

Autumn crossed her arms and lent agaisnt the wall next to the flat, "So, is this it?" she asked.

"Maybe." he replied, focusing on the door. He flicked the cat flap slightly before flicking it more forcfully. His eyes widened as he saw Rose, the girl from yesterday, through the cat flap.

He jumped up as the door opened and Autumn pushed herself off the wall, her eyebrows rasing in surprise as she saw Rose standing the doorway.

"What are you doing here?" the Doctor asked.

Autumn rolled her eyes, "Well, obviously she lives here."

"Well, what do you do that for?"

"Because I do." Rose replied, "And I'm only at home cos someone blew up my job!"

"I must've got the wrong signal." he remarked, examining the sonic, "You're not plastic, are you?" he knocked on her forehead, "Nope, bonehead. Bye then."

He and Autumn turned around, about to walk away but Rose grabbed their arms and pulled them into the flat, "You two, inside, right now." she shoved them inside and slammed the door.

The Doctor put the sonic in the inside pocket of his jacket and Autumn huffed, leaning against the wall as Rose poked her head into another room.

"It's about last night," Rose told whoever was in the room, "They're part of the inquiry, give us ten minutes." she strode out of the hallway and into the living room as the Doctor and Autumn lingered in the hallway.

"She deserves compensation." a woman, Autumn assumed it was Rose's mother, said from the other room.

"Oh, we're talking millions." the Doctor remarked, coming to stand in the doorway.

The woman turned to look at him properly and stood up flirtatiously, "I'm in my dressing gown." she remarked.

"Yes, you are." the Doctor agreed.

Autumn smiled in the background as she realised what was happening, though the Doctor didn't seem to notice. She found it hilarious when people flirted with the Doctor, which surprisingly happened alot. Though, she supposed, most people loved heroes and in the right light the Doctor _could_ be seen as a hero.

"There's a strange man in my bedroom." Rose's mother continued

"Yes, there is." the Doctor said again.

"Anything could happen."

The Doctor made a face, "No." he shook his head.

He walked into the living room and Autumn followed after him, snickering.

The Doctor rolled his eyes as he heard her snickers, "Shut up." he sighed.

Autumn seemed to find it hilarous when people flirted with him, which he found immensly annoying for some reason. He wished someoe would flirt with Autumn so he could laugh at her. Actually, scratch that. He didn't wish that, he _really_ didn't. The idea was really unappealing to him, though he had no idea why.

Autumn just shook her head, still smiling, and sat on the arm of the sofa.

"Do you want a coffee?" Rose asked, lingering in the kinchen doorway.

"No, thank you." Autumn shook head, examining the room.

"Might as well, thanks," the Doctor replied, "Just milk."

Rose walked into the kichen as the Doctor looked around the room examining all the little trinkets. Autumn leaned back and fell onto the sofa, her legs still dangling off of the arm of the chair.

"We should go to the poilce." Rose called from the kitchen, "Seriously. The three of us."

The Doctor picked up a magazine off the coffee table, "That won't last," he remarked, "He's gay and she's an alien."

"I'm not blaming you," Rose continued, "Even if it was just some sort of joke that went wrong."

The Doctor picked up a paper back novel and flicked through it, "Sad ending."

"They said on the news they'd found a body."

The Doctor picked up an evelope, "Rose Tyler." he read of the back of it. He spotted a mirror and put the envelope down, walking over to it, "Ahh, could've been worse!" he remarked, "Look at the ears." he prodded his ears.

"Okay," Autumn sat up so she was sitting on the arm of the sofa, "I know Time Lords can change their faces, but there's no way you haven't looked in a mirror the last month."

He shrugged, "There's not many mirrors in the TARDIS."

She rolled her eyes. There were plenty of mirrors in the TARDIS.

"All the same," Rose was saying, "He was nice. Nice bloke."

The Doctor picked up a pack of playing cards and shuffled them, "Luck be a lady!"

"Well, anyway if we are going to the police, I want to know what I'm saying."

He shuffled cards again and they scattered everywhere.

"I want you to explain everything."

"Maybe not." he muttered.

Autumn hopped off the sofa and frowned as she heard a scuffling coming from behind it.

"Have you got a cat?" she called to Rose, slightly nervously; she hated cats, they were all devils, "Or a dog?"

"No..." Rose replied.

The Doctor lent behind the sofa and a dummy's arm lept out and grabbed by the neck. He stumbled back as Autumn's eyes widened and she rushed foward to help him.

"We did have a cat," Rose remarked as she walked in with the coffee, "But there's these strays, they come in off the estate..." she rolled her eyes as she saw the plastic hand strangling the Doctor and Autumn trying to pull it off. "I told Mickey to chuck that out..." she put the coffe on the table, "Honestly, give a man a plastic hand... anyway, I don't even know your name, Doctor... what was it?"

Autumn mentally rolled her eyes as she continues pulling on the arm. Couldn't Rose see that he was actually being strangled by the arm? Were all humans in this time period so ignorant or was it just Rose? She was betting the former.

Autumn finally managed to pull the arm off and it flew across the room, attaching itself to Rose's face. Rose screamed and Autumn hurried towards her.

The Doctor leapt up and grabbed onto the arm, pulling at it with Autumn. All three of them crashed onto the coffee table, smashing it to pieces. The Doctor pushed Rose onto the sofa and flashed his sonic against the arm, enabling him to pull it off.

"It's alright." he told Rose as Autumn got up and brushed pieces of the broken coffee table off of her, "I've stopped it. There you go, you see?" he tossed it to her, "'Armless."

Autumn rolled her eyes at the stupid joke.

"Do you think?" Rose asked, whacking him on the shoulder with the arm.

"Ow!"


	5. Rose: The Signal

Rose: The Signal

The Doctor and Autumn ran down the stairs of the flats, Rose following after them.

"Hold on a minute," Rose called after them, "You can't just go swanning off."

"Yes, we can." the Doctor told her, "Here we are, this is us, swanning off. See ya!"

"That arm was moving, it tried to kill me!"

"No flies on you." Autumn remarked.

"You can't just walk away," she argued, "That's just not fair!"

"Life's not fair." Autumn retorted.

Rose was really starting to get on her nerves. They had a planet to save and Rose was going on and on about herself and how it wasn't fair to her. She'd tell her what not fair was. Not fair was losing your whole family and your home all in one day. She was betting Rose had an alright life, better than some, she had a mother and home at least, which was a lot more than the Doctor or Autumn had.

"You've got to tell me what's going on."

"No we don't." the Doctor said.

They reached the doors and they stepped out of them and onto the street.

"Alright then." Rose crossed her arms, "I'll go to the police. I'll tell everyone. You said, if I did that, I'd get people killed. So, your choice. Tell me, or I'll start talking."

"Good luck with that." Autumn muttered, shaking her head. Was the girl stupid? Rose herself barely believed what was happening, how could she expect anyone else to? Especially when Rose had seen evidence and no one else had.

"Is that supposed to sound tough?" the Doctor asked.

Rose shrugged, "Sort of."

"Doesn't work."

"Who are you?"

"I told you!" he reminded her, "The Doctor and Autumn."

"Yeah. But Doctor what?"

"Just the Doctor." he replied.

"The Doctor." she repeated skeptically.

"Hello!" he grinned.

"Is that supposed to sound impressive?" she asked.

"Most definately." Autumn replied.

"Come on." Rose fell into step with them, having been a bit behind them, "You can tell me. I've seen enough. Are you the police?"

"No." the Doctor shook his head, "We were just passing through. We're both a long way from home."

Autumn's heart pinged at the metion of home. She wasn't as depressed about as she was when she first got to 2020 or when she realised that she could never go back, but it still hurt. Just like she knew the Doctor's loss would always hurt, even though she knew his was much worse. She still had a planet, and there were other Ayries' out there.

He'd told her about his planet, about the Time War, though she had heard legends about it before. He'd told her about what had happened and what he had to do and she was always astounded by his strength. She knew she could never cope with that, she could barely cope with her own loss. And he managed to _smile_ everyday. How he managed to do that, she'd never know.

"But what have I done wrong?" Rose asked, "How come those plastic things keep coming after me?"

Autumn rolled her eyes _again._ There was Rose's self centred attitude coming through again, always thinking everything was about her. And a few minutes ago she threatened to tell people, even if it got them _killed_ , just so she could know what was going on! She obviously didn't care about much beside herself.

"Oh!" the Doctor rolled his eyes, "Suddenly the entire world revolves around you! You were just an accident, you got in the way, that's all."

"It tried to kill me!" Rose exclaimed.

"It was after us, not you!" the Doctor told her, "Last night, in the shop, we were there, you blundered in. Almost ruined the whole thing. This morning, we were tracking it down, it was tracking us down... the only reason it fixed on you is that you met me."

"So, what you're saying is," Rose began, "The entire world revolves around you."

"That's what he likes to think." Autumn remarked.

"You're full of it!" Rose exclaimed.

"Sort of, yeah." he agreed.

"But, all this plastic stuff, who else knows about it?"

"Just us." Autumn replied.

"So, what, it's just you two?" she asked.

"Well, who else is there?" the Doctor wondered, "I mean, you lot, all you do is eat chips, go to bed, and watch telly! When all the time, underneath you, there's a war going on!"

"Okay," Rose snatched the plastic arm off the Doctor, "Start from the beginning." they got to the end of the road and walked passed a park, "If you're gonna go with this living plastic, and I don't even believe that, but if we do... how did you kill it?"

"The thing controlling it projects life into the arm." the Doctor answered, "I cut of the signal, dead."

"So that's radio control?" Rose asked.

"Thought control." Autumn corrected.

There was a pause and the Doctor glanced at Rose, "You alright?"

"Yeah." she replied, "So, who's controlling it, then?"

"Long story." the Doctor replied.

"But what's it all for?" Rose asked, "I mean, shop window dummies... what's that about? Is someone trying to take over Britain's shops?"

The Doctor and Rose laughed, but Autumn just smiled.

"No." the Doctor replied.

"I know."

"It's not a price war." he joked and they both laughed again before he suddenly became serious, "They want to overthrow the human race and destroy you. Do you believe me?"

Rose shook her head, "No."

"Why are you listening then?" Autumn asked.

The Doctor and Autumn continued walking but Rose stopped, "Really though, Doctor, Autumn. Tell me, who are you?"

They both stopped and turned around, "Do you know how we were saying about the earth revolving?" the Doctor asked, starting to walk towards her as Autumn stayed behind, "It's like when you were a kid. The first time they tell you the world's turning and you just can't quite believe it because everything looks like it's standing still. I can feel it." he took Rose's hand, "The turn of the Earth. The ground beneath our feet is spinning at a thousand miles an hour, and the entire planet is hurtling around the sun at sixty seven miles an hour, and I can feel it. We're falling through space, you and me. Clinging to the skin of this tiny little world, and if we let go..." he broke out of the trance he had gotten into and dropped her hand, "That's who I am. Now, forget me, Rose Tyler." he grabbed the plastic arm and waved it her face, "Go home."

He walked back towards Autumn and they both walked back to the TARDIS as Rose watched.

XXX

The Doctor walked up to Rose and her boyfriend as they sat in a restaurant, having dinner.

They'd tracked the signal to the restaurant and discovered that the man Rose was having dinner with had been replaced by a plastic duplicate that the Nestene was controlling.

"Your champagne." he said, offering them a bottle of champagne, pretending to be a waiter.

"We didn't order any champagne." the duplicate waved him off, concentrating on Rose, "Where's the Doctor and his assistant?"

The Doctor walked around the table and offered Rose the champagne, "Ma'am, your champagne."

"It's not ours..." Rose didn't even look up, "Mickey, what is it?" she asked, concerned for her boyfriend, "What's wrong?"

"I need to find out how much you know," the duplicate replied, "So where is he?"

"Doesn't anybody want this champagne?" the Doctor asked.

"Look, we didn't order i.." the duplicate finally looked up and realised that it was the Doctor, "Ah. Gotcha."

The Doctor shook the bottle vigorously, "Don't mind me." he said, "I'm just toasting the happing couple. On the house!"

He popped the cork, aiming it at the duplicate's forehead. The duplicate absorbed the cork and spat it of his mouth, "Anyway." his hands turned into clubs and he smashed them against the table. Rose screamed and backed away as the Doctor grabbed the duplicate in a head lock and pulled his head off, "Don't think that's gonna stop me." the duplicate's head warned.

Rose quickly pulled a fire alarm, "Everyone out!" she yelled and all the patrons ran for the exit, "Out now!" the duplicate's body started smashing things at random with his club hands, "Get out! Get out! Get out!"

Rose and the Doctor ran through the kitchen and out the back exit into a courtyard where the TARDIS stood. The Doctor flashed his sonic over the back door, locking it to slow the duplicate down. Rose looked around desperately for an escape route and ran over to a pair of padlocked gates.

"Open the gate!" she yelled, banging on the gate, "Use the tube thing, come on!"

"Sonic screwdriver." the Doctor corrected, walking towards the TARDIS.

"Use it!" Rose yelled.

"Nah." he shook his head, "Tell ya what, let's go in here." he unlocked the doors to the TARDIS and walked inside where Autumn was standing at the console, looking at the monitor.

"Got the head." he told her, holding up the duplicate's head as she glanced back at him.

"Good." she remarked as he reached the console and started attaching wires to head.

She was ready for this adventure to be finished. It had taken longer than most of the adventures they'd been on.

Neither of them looked back when Rose entered the TARDIS and stared around in shock before running back outside only to come back in a few moments later.

"It's gonna follow us!" she pointed out.

"The assembled hoards of Genghis Khan couldn't get through that door," the Doctor told her, not pausing in his work, "And believe me, they've tried. Now, shut up a minute."

He continued attaching wires to the duplicate's head as Rose stared around the TARDIS, trembling slightly.

"The arm was too simple." Autumn spoke up, trying to explain it Rose, "But we can use the head to trace the signal."

"Right," the Doctor turned to Rose, done with his work, "Where do you want to start?"

"Um... the inside's bigger than the outside?" she said.

"Yes." the Doctor nodded.

"It's alien." she stated.

"Yeah." Autumn agreed.

"Are you two alien?" Rose asked, looking between them.

"Yeah, we are." Autumn answered, "Is that a problem?"

"No." Rose replied, quickly.

Autumn had a feeling that it _was_ a slight problem, but Rose didn't want to admit it.

"It's called the TARDIS, this thing." the Doctor told her, "T-A-R-D-I-S, that's Time And Relative Dimension In Space." a sob escaped from Rose's mouth, "That's okay. Culture shock. Happens to the best of us."

"Did they kill him?" Rose asked, tearfully, "Mickey? Did they kill Mickey? Is he dead?"

"Oh..." the Doctor frowned, "I didn't think of that."

"Neither did I." Autumn added.

"He's my boyfriend." Rose said angrily, "You pulled off his head, they copied him and you didn't even think? And now you're just going to let him melt?!" she gestured to the console where the duplicate's head had started to melt.

"Melt?" the Doctor span around to face the console to see the bubbling remains of the duplicate's head, "Oh, no no no no no NO!" he ran around the console, piloting the TARDIS.

"What're you doing?!" Rose asked over the noise of the TARDIS.

"He's trying to follow the signal." Autumn told her.

"It's fading!" the Doctor exclaimed, "Wait, I've got it..." he glanced at the monitor, "No No No No No No NO!" the TARDIS shook as he piloted it away, "Almost there! Almost there! Here we go!"

The engines fell silent and the Doctor and Autumn ran outside onto the Thames Embankment.

"I lost the signal," the Doctor remarked, "I got _so_ close."

Rose ran outside after them, looking around their new setting in confusion, "We've moved!" she exclaimed, "Does it fly?"

"Disappears there, reappears here," the Doctor replied, "You wouldn't understand."

"But if we're somewhere else," Rose began, "What about that headless thing? It's still on the loose."

"It would've melted with the head." Autumn told her.

"I'll have to tell his mother..." Rose remarked softly after a moment and they both looked at her questioningly, "Mickey!" she exclaimed, "I'll have to tell his mother he's dead, and you two just went and forgot him, again!" the Doctor rolled his eyes, unconcerned and Autumn just shrugged, "You were right, you two ARE alien." she turned to walk away.

Autumn rolled her eyes, "It's our biology that makes us aliens, not our morals."

Why did all Humans think they were the only ones with feelings or 'humanity' as they liked to call it? They were perfectly happy to say that some Humans _didn't_ have it, but when other aliens said they _did_ have it, they never believed them.

"Look, if we did forget some kid called Mickey..." the Doctor began.

"Yeah, he's not a kid." Rose cut in.

"It's because we're trying to save the life of every _stupid_ ape blundering on top of this planet, alright?!" he yelled.

"Alright!" Rose yelled back.

"Yes! It is!"

"If you are aliens, the how comes you sound like you're from the North and you sound like you're from America?"

"Lots of planets have a North." the Doctor replied, folding his arms and looking away.

"And I actually _am_ from America." Autumn answered, "Just really far in the future."

Rose glanced back at the TARDIS, "What's a police public call box?"

"It's a telephone box from the 1950's." the Doctor patted the TARDIS, grinning, "It's a disguise."

Rose smiled, shaking her head, "Okay. And this living plastic, what's it got against us?"

"Nothing," the Doctor replied, "It loves you. You've got such a good planet. Lots of smoke and oil, plenty of toxins and distoxins in the air... perfect. Just what the Nestene Consciousness needs. It's food stock was destroyed in the war, all it's protein plants rotted. So, Earth, dinner."

"Any way of stopping it?" Rose asked.

Autumn pulled a tube of blue liquid out of her jacket pocket, "Antiplastic."

"Antiplastic?" Rose repeated.

"Anitiplastic!" the Doctor nodded, taking the tube off Autumn, "But first of all, we've got to find it." he looked around, "How can you something that big in a city this small?"

"Hold on." Rose said, "Hide what?"

"The transmitter." Autumn answered.

"The Consciousness is controlling every single piece of plastic so it needs a transmitter to boost the signal." the Doctor explained.

"What's it look like?" Rose wondered.

"Like a transmitter." the Doctor replied, "Round and massive."

"Almost like a satellite dish." Autumn expanded, "But bigger." she looked around,"It should be somewhere around here."

"A hug circular metal structure..." the Doctor glanced around, "Like a dish..." he turned to face Rose as Autumn looked behind him with a frown, something niggling at her, "...Like a wheel. Like..."

"Like the London Eye." Autumn cut in, staring across the river at the huge circular structure.

The Doctor frowned and span around to face the London Eye before turning to Rose and Autumn, "Fantastic!" he grinned.


	6. Rose: The Nestene Conciousness

Rose: The Nestene Consciousness

The Doctor and Autumn ran hand in hand towards the London Eye, Rose running along next to them.

XXX

The trio came to a halt as they reached the foot of the Eye.

"Think of it." the Doctor remarked, "Plastic, all over the world. Every artificial thing waiting to come alive. The shop window dummies, the phones, the wires, the cables..."

"The breast implants..." Rose added.

"Still, we've found the transmitter." the Doctor muttered, "The consciousness must be somewhere underneath."

They looked around as Rose ran towards a wall and looked over the edge at a manhole, "What about down here?" she asked and they ran to join her.

"Looks good to me." the Doctor commented.

They ran down the stairs to the manhole and the Doctor lifted the lid off, letting smoke pour out of it. The three of them climbed down a ladder and the Doctor opened a door to another chamber.

They climbed down a set of steps and the Doctor pointed to a huge chunk of gurgling gunk in the middle of the chamber, "The Nestene Consciousness, that's it, inside the vat. A living, plastic creature."

"Well, then." Rose nodded towards the vat, "Tip in your antiplastic and let's go."

"He won't just kill it." Autumn told her, "He has to give it a chance."

It wasn't that she didn't agree with giving someone a chance, she did, but sometimes it often wasted time, since none of the aliens took that chance, and sometimes it got people hurt. And if people _did_ get hurt it just made the Doctor feel guilty since he was the one who gave the enemy a chance and the Doctor felt too much guilt already

They walked down the rest of the steps and the Doctor lent over the railing to address the Consciousness, "I seek audience with the Nestene Consciousness under peaceful contract." he said, "According to convention 15 of the Shadow Proclamation." the Consciousness garbled, "Thank you. If I might have permission to approach."

In the background Rose spotted Mickey and ran to him, "Oh, my God!" she exclaimed, "Mickey! It's okay! It's alright!" she knelt down next to him.

"That thing down there," Mickey trembled, "The liquid, Rose, it can talk!"

"You're stinking!" she commented as the Doctor and Autumn walked past them, "Doctor, Autumn, they kept him alive!"

"There was always 50-50 chance of him being alive." Autumn shrugged, "They must've needed him alive to maintain the copy."

"You knew that and you never said?" Rose asked incredulously.

"I was bit busy saving the world." Autumn replied impatiently.

"Can we keep the domestics outside, thank you?" the Doctor complained.

Rose helped Mickey to his feet as the Doctor and Autumn approached the Consciousness.

"Am I addressing the Consciousness?" the Doctor asked, "Thank you. If I might observe, you infiltrated this civilization by means of warped, shunt technology. So, may I suggest, with the greatest respect, that you shunt off?" the Consciousness gurgled angrily and the Doctor rolled his eyes, "Oh, don't give me that, it's an invasion plain and simple! Don't talk about constitutional rights!" the Consciousness reared up angrily, "I. Am. Talking! This planet is just starting. These stupid little people have only just learnt how to walk, but they're capable of so much more. I'm asking you on their behalf, please, just go."

Unseen by either the Doctor or Autumn, two dummies approached them from behind.

"Doctor!" Rose yelled, "Autumn!"

The dummies grabbed them and one of them took the antiplastic out of Autumn's pocket.

"That was just insurance!" the Doctor told them as he and Autumn struggled in the dummy's hold, "I wasn't going to USE it."

"I probably would have, though." Autumn muttered, too quiet for anyone to hear. While the Doctor hated killing or harming anyone, even enemies, she didn't mind doing it if it saved people. And most of the time the enemies she destroyed brought it on themselves.

She struggled harder in the dummy's hold; she was _not_ going to die here. She didn't survive all the adventures with her team and with the Doctor just for some plastic to kill her.

"I was not attacking you." the Doctor insisted, "I'm here to help. I'm not your enemy. I swear, I'm not... what do you mean?" a door behind him slid open to reveal the TARDIS, "Oh, oh no, honestly, no! Yes, that's my ship." the Consciousness roared angrily, "That's not true. I should know, I was there. I was fought in the war, it wasn't my fault! I couldn't save your world! I couldn't save any of them!"

Autumn felt pang of sympathy for him as his voice cracked at the mention and reminder of his destroyed home. She knew he felt immense guilt for everything that happened. And now the Conciousness was blaming him for it's loss, which would just make the Doctor feel guiltier. He always managed to feel guilty about something

"What's it doing?!" Rose asked.

"It's the TARDIS!" the Doctor explained, "The Nestene has identified its superior technology, it's terrified! It's going into the final phase. It's starting the invasion! Get out, Rose! Just leg it! Now!"

Rose dug around her pocket for her mobile and dialled her mum's number, "Mum?!

" _Oh, there you are,"_ her mother, Jackie, said over the phone, " _I was just gonna phone. You_ can _get compensation. I said so. I've got this document thing off the police, don't thank me!_ "

"Where are you mum?" Rose asked.

" _I'm in town!_ " Jackie replied.

"Go home!" Rose ordered, "Just go home, right now!"

" _Darling, you're breaking up, look, I'm just going to do a bit of late night shopping. I'll see you later. Tara!"_

"Mum?!" Rose yelled, "Mum!" she sighed and put the phone down.

Circles of blue light rose from the Consciousness into the ceiling.

"It's the Activation signal!" the Doctor exclaimed, "It's transmitting!"

"The end of the world..." Rose breathed.

"Rose, run!" Autumn yelled in a last ditch effort to at least safe one person. The Earth might not be safe, but if Rose could get into the TARDIS, she'd be safe in there. She might be fond of the girl, but that didn't mean that she wanted her to die.

"The stairs have gone!" Rose yelled, running back to the TARDIS with Mickey, "I haven't got the key!"

"We're gonna die!" Mickey cried. Rose watched the Doctor and Autumn struggle as she cowered with Mickey and stood up, "Just leave them!" Mickey shouted, "There's nothing you can do!"

Rose ran to the other side of the chamber and picked up an axe, "I've got no A levels." she muttered, "No job... no future." she hacked at a chain on the wall, "But I tell you what I have got. Jericho Street Junior School under sevens gymnastic team." the chain came loose and Rose grabbed it, "I got the bronze!"

She swung across the chamber and kicked the dummies into the vat, along with the antiplastic. The Conciousness writhed and screamed as the Doctor helped Rose down.

"Now we're in trouble." he remarked.

The Doctor, Rose and Autumn ran to the TARDIS and ran inside with Mickey just as the Consciousness exploded.

XXX

Mickey ran out of the TARDIS and into an alley way, collapsing against a wall as he stared at the TARDIS in terror. Rose stepped out out the TARDIS and rang her mother again.

" _Rose!"_ her mother exclaimed as she answered, " _Rose! Don't go out of the house, it's not safe!"_ Rose laughed in relief, " _There were all of these things! And they were shooting! And they-"_ Rose shook her head, smiling, and hung up the phone.

Rose turned to Mickey, "Fat lot of good you were!"

"Nestene Consciousness?" the Doctor said from where he and Autumn stood in the TARDIS doorway. He clicked his fingers, "Easy."

"You two were useless in there." Rose said teasingly, "You'd be dead if it wasn't for me."

"We would actually, yes." Autumn agreed, a hint of respect for Rose bubbling in her, "Thank you."

"Right then!" the Doctor exclaimed, "We'll be off, then."

"Goodbye." Rose smiled at them.

"Bye." they both replied as they stepped back into the TARDIS.

Rose watched as the TARDIS disappeared.


	7. The End of the World: The Search Begins

_Please read and review!_

* * *

The End of the World: The Search Begins

Autumn walked up to the console, ready for their next adventure when she stopped dead, realising something.

Her sister had gone on a time travel expedition a few weeks before she'd been taken back by the Weeping Angel. And since no one could get back home via any means of time travel, because of the time distortions, her sister was probably still out there. She could find her.

"Oh, my God." she muttered to herself, she couldn't believe that she hadn't thought of looking for her before.

"What?" the Doctor asked, glancing at her.

"I can't believe I forgot." she muttered, not really paying attention to the Doctor, her mind solely focussed on the thought of finding her sister.

"Forgot what?" the Doctor asked.

Autumn finally looked up at him, "My sister." she replied, "She went on a time travel expedition a few weeks before I got taken back. She'd still be out there! And she can't get home either because of the time distortions. We could find her." she smiled to herself and breathed, "We could find her." she shook her head and looked back at the Doctor, "We could find her, right?"

"We can try." he replied, "Where was she going on this expedition?"

"Important events in Earth's history."

"Well," he began, starting to pilot the TARDIS, "I know a pretty important event." the TARDIS engines came to a stop and the Doctor gestured to the doors with his head.

"Where are we?" she asked but he just gestured to the doors again so she stepped out into a plain looking yellow room.

Autumn looked around, confused as to where they were, when a shutter rolled up to reveal an observation widow.

They walked over to it and observed the Earth suspended in space, "What year is it?" Autumn asked, glancing at the Doctor.

"This is the year 5.5/apple/26." he replied, "And this is the day..." he checked his watch, "Hold on..." the sun suddenly bubbled up and surrounded the earth, "This is the day the sun expands." he turned to look at her, "Welcome to the end of the world."

She turned to look at him and smiled. This was the _perfect_ place to look for her sister. She was going to important events in Earth's history and what was more important than it's death?

XXX

"Shuttles five and six now docking." a computerised voice announced as the Doctor and Autumn walked down a simple corridor, "Guests are reminded that Platform One forbids the use of weapons, teleportation and religion. Earth death is scheduled for 15:39, followed by drinks in the Manchester suite."

"I don't like how guests have been invited to this." Autumn commented, "Like it's a party. It's not. Still, I wonder who's been invited."

Really, she was just wondering if her sister was here, it was all she could think about. When she got taken back she had been devastated because her family was so close. Her mother, her father and her and her sister had all been so happy. They had their problems, what family didn't, but ultimatley they were happy. And now she had a chance to get part of that back, she couldn't even describe how that felt.

"The great and the good are gathering to watch the planet burn." the Doctor remarked.

They reached a door and the Doctor started to unlock it with his sonic while Autumn lent against the wall.

"I don't understand why anyone would want to watch that." she muttered as the door opened and they stepped into a larger room with a much bigger observation window.

"Mind you, when I say the great and the good, what I mean is, the rich." the Doctor remarked as they walked towards the observation window.

"Surprise, surprise." Autumn muttered, sarcastically. The rich always seemed to have a fascination with tragic events, "I thought that it took millions of years for the sun to expand."

"It does, but the planet's now the property of the National Trust," the Doctor told her, "They've been keeping it preserved, see down there?" he pointed at tiny little lights orbiting the Earth, "Gravity satellites, holding back the sun."

"And I'm guessing the Trust shifted the continents back?" she glanced at him.

He nodded, "That's a classic Earth. But now the money's run out, and nature takes over."

"How long has it got?"

He checked his watch, "About half an hour." he replied, "Then the planet gets roasted."

"Good job no one's down there." she remarked.

"Who the hell are you?" a voice called behind them and they span around to see a blue humanoid alien, the Steward, striding towards them

"Oh, that's nice." the Doctor rolled his eyes, "Thanks!"

"But how did you get in?" the Steward asked, "This is a maximum hospitality zone, the guests have disembarked, they're on their way, any second now."

"No, that's us," the Doctor cut in, "We're guests. Look, I've got an invitation." he held up a black wallet, "Look, there you see? It's fine, see? The Doctor and Autumn Skies. I'm the Doctor and she's Autumn Skies. Is that alright?"

"Well, obviously." the Steward replied, "Apologies etcetera. If you're on board we better start. Enjoy."

The Steward walked away and the Doctor showed Autumn the wallet which contained a seemingly blank piece of paper, "The paper's slightly psychic. It..."

"Shows them whatever you want them to see." Autumn finished, "I know, I've heard of it."

The Doctor put the wallet back in his pocket as the Steward walked to stand in front of a podium, "We have in attendance the Doctor and Autumn Skies," he announced, "Thank you, all staff to their positions!" he clapped his hands and a group of little blue people scurried around the room, "Hurry now. Thank you, come along, come along. And now might I introduce the next honoured guests. Representing the Forest of Cheem, we have trees, namely Jabe, Lute and Coffa."

A door opened and a beautiful tree like woman escorted by two tree like males walked in, "Thank you, there will be an exchange of gifts to represent peace, if you keep the room circulating, thank you. Next, from the solicitors of Jolco and Jolco, we have the Moxx of Balhoon."

A small blue creature was wheeled in on an ornate, cushioned chair, "Next, from Financial Family Seven, the Adherents of the Repeated Meme." a group of dark cloaked figures entered, "The inventors of hyposlip travel systems, the brothers Hop Pyleen. Thank you! Cal 'Spark Pug'." a group of new aliens entered after each announcement, "Mr and Mrs Pakoo. The Ambassadors from the City State of Blinding Light."

The tree woman, Jabe, approached the Doctor and Autumn with her companions, "The Gift of Peace." she took a little plant that was in a small plastic pot off the tray her companions were holding and handed it to the Doctor, "I bring you a cutting of my Grandfather."

"Thank you!" the Doctor grinned, handing the plant to Autumn, "Yes, gifts..." he felt jacket for something, "Erm... I give you in return, air from my lungs" he breathed gently on Jabe's face.

Autumn shook her head; Air from my lungs? Was that the best he could do? She was sure that his pockets were filled with different kinds of odds and ends that he could have given her.

Jabe, though, smiled, "How... intimate."

"There's more where that came from." the Doctor flirted.

Autumn eyed them uncomfortably, not amused by someone flirting with the Doctor as she usually was. She was probably just uncomfortable. What was that phrase humans used to use when someone accompanied their friend on a date? A third... wheel! That was it, she felt like a third wheel.

"I bet there is..." Jabe commented, walking away with her companions.

"Sponsor of the main event," came the announcement, "Please welcome the Face of Boe."

A huge head inside a jar was wheeled through the doors as the Moxx of Balhoon approached the Doctor and Autumn.

"The Moxx of Balhoon." the Doctor greeted cheerfully.

"My felicitations on this historical happenstance." the Moxx replied, "I give the gift of bodily saliva." he spat into Autumn's eye.

"Thank you very much." the Doctor laughed as Autumn wiped the spit from her eye.

The Moxx rolled away and the Adherents of the Repeated Meme took his place.

"Ah!" the Doctor grinned, "The Adherents of the Repeated Meme. I bring you air from my lungs." he breathed heavily over them.

"A gift of peace in all good faith." an Adherent handed the Doctor a sliver egg.

The Doctor threw the egg in the air and caught it before passing it to Autumn.

"And last but not least," the Steward announced, "Our very special guest. Ladies and Gentlemen, and Trees and Multiforms. Consider the Earth below. In memory of this dying world, we call forth the last Human." the doors opened and a piece of skin, with eyes and a mouth, stretched across a metal frame was wheeled in with two surgeons, "The Lady Cassandra O'Brien Dot Delta Seventeen."

Autumn blinked in surprise. The aliens hadn't phased her because she'd met loads of aliens in her time, in 2020 and on her adventures with the Doctor, but this wasn't an alien. This was human, and she couldn't believe they'd be reduced to this.

Oh, she knew there were other humans out there, they just weren't fully human. Like how she was one sixteenth human, but mostly Ayries. The other humans procreated with other species so they weren't fully human, so technically, that piece of skin _was_ the last human.

"Oh, now, don't stare." Cassandra commented, "I know, I know it's shocking, isn't it? I've had my chin completely taken away and look at the difference! Look how thin I am." the Doctor laughed silently at that, "Thin and dainty! I don't look a day over two thousand. Moisturize me, Moisturize me."

One of the surgeons sprayed her with the canister he was holding, "Truly, I am The Last Human." Cassandra continued, "My father was a Texan. My mother was from the Artic Desert. They were born on the Earth and were the last to be buried in the soil. I have come to honour them and..." she sniffed, "...Say goodbye. Oh, no tears." one of the surgeons wiped the tears from her eyes, "No tears. I'm sorry. But behold! I bring gifts. From Earth itself, the last remaining Ostrich egg."

One on the staff walked in and displayed the egg, "Legend says it had a wingspan of 50 feet and blew fire from it's nostrils." Cassandra said, "Or was that my third husband?" the Doctor laughed, but Autumn just crossed her arms, a faint scowl on her face, "Who knows! Oh don't laugh. I'll get laughter lines!"

Behind Cassandra a large juke box was wheeled in, "And here, another rarity." Cassandra remarked, "According to the archives, this was called an iPod. It stores classical music from humanity's greatest composers. Play on!"

One of the staff pressed a button the 'iPod' and Soft Cell's 'Tainted Love' began to play.

"Refreshments will now be served." the Steward said, "Earth Death in 30 minutes."

Autumn looked around the aliens for a specific face, though she knew was pointless. Her sister wasn't there. She swallowed hard and jogged out of the room, needing a moment alone.

The Doctor spotted Autumn leaving and started to follow her but Jabe stepped in his way, "Doctor?" she said, holding up a device and taking a picture of him, "Thank you." she smiled and the Doctor continued on his way. 


	8. The End of the World: Lost Hope

The End of the World: Lost Hope

Autumn stood in another room, staring out the window at the raging sun.

She shouldn't feel so disappointed. She knew it would be hard to find her sister and it was very unlikely that they'd find her on their first try, but she couldn't help it. She was so... excited? No that wasn't the right word. She was... mesmerised. That was it, she was mesmerised by the idea of finding her sister that she didn't think about it logically. It could take a hundred years to find her!

Or it was entirely possible that they might never find her.

The idea broke her heart, she'd already lost so much she didn't want to lose her hope. And she knew that once her sister's expedition was over and she found out that she couldn't go back, she'd be devastated. Not only that, but she'd be alone. She knew the people on the expedition, of course, but they weren't exactly friends. They were just collegues.

Her sister would be alone with no where to go and no home. Autumn may have been tough enough to make it but her sister wasn't. Her sister was so... innocent and sweet. And while she loved that about her sister, sweetness wouldn't get you far in the world.

Autumn was broken out of her thought when she looked back to see that one of the staff had entered the room she was in, "I'm allowed to be in here, right?" Autumn asked, she'd assumed that guests were allowed anywhere.

The alien looked around warily, "You have to give us permission to talk."

"You can talk." Autumn replied. She hated how some aliens were treated so badly that they actually had to ask for persmission to _speak._ Freedom of expression was a right everyone should have.

"Thank you!" the alien smiled, surprised at her kindness, "And, no. You're not in the way. Guests are allowed anywhere."

Autumn nodded, "Okay." she watched as the alien walked over to a pannel in the wall and entered a code, "What's your name?"

"Raffalo." the alien replied.

"Nice name." Autumn complimented.

"Thank you, miss." Raffalo smiled, "I won't be long, I've just got to carry out some maintenance." she knelt down in front of an air vent, "There's a tiny little glitch in the Face of Boe's suite. There must be something blocking the system, he's not getting any hot water."

"You're a plumber, then." Autumn assumed.

Raffalo nodded, "That's right, miss."

"So, where are you from?"

"Crespallion." the alien replied, and Autumn nodded, vaugly rembering hearing about it back in her time, "And where are you from, miss?" Raffalo looked down, remembering herself, "If you don't mind me asking."

"It's fine." Autumn shook her head, "I'm orginally from Alpha 74."

She didn't remember much about Alpha 74 since they moved to Earth when she was 5. The human's had found Alpha 74 and it's inhabitants 78 years before she was born and they had welcomed them to Earth. Some of the Ayries jumped at the chance but others prefered their home. Autumn's mother had wanted to move to Earth to get in touch with her human side.

Autumn's great great granmother, her mother's great grandmother, had been human and she'd met her great great grandfather on Alpha 74 when the humans and Ayries were negotiating. They had fell in love and stayed on Alpha 74 the rest of their lives and, although she had a happy life, her great great grandmother had always wanted to go back to Earth at some point, but she'd never made it.

So to honnor her, her mother had decided to move to Earth and her father hadn't complained.

"You're an Ayries, miss?" Ruffalo turned to her with wide eyes, breaking her out of her thoughts.

"Yep." Autumn nodded.

"But I thought they were all wiped out in the Great War." Ruffalo frowned.

"War?" Autumn frowned, "What war?"

"The war of 4678." Ruffalo replied, "Between the Ayries and the Eiteens."

Autumn gaped, her mind racing. 4678. That was just three years after she'd been taken. If what Ruffalo said was true than she would have lost her family anyway, even if she hadn't been taken back.

Oh, God.

She felt sick.

Ruffalo had said they'd all been wiped out.

She may have already lost her family, but she felt like she'd lost them all over again, but this time it was much worse. At least before she had the comfort of knowing her family was alive, now she didn't even have that.

This meant she was... she was the last of her species.

The last of the Ayries.

Autumn's breathing quickened and she backed away before turning and running out of the room, tears streaming down her face.

XXX

Autumn sat on the steps in the observation gallery they had first arrived in. Her knees were pulled up to her chest and she was hugging herself as she sobbed.

She didn't even notice as a metal spider climbed out of the egg the Adherents of the Repeated Meme had given her and Doctor.

"Earth Death in 25 minutes." the computer annouced, "Earth Death in 25 minutes."

Autumn ignored the announcment and continued sobbing.

She couldn't believe this was happening. No, she reminded herself, it wasn't happening. It had already _happened._ She just didn't know about it.

She sniffed and untangled herself, streching her legs out in front of her. She wiped at her eyes and stared at the wall blankly.

XXX

The TARDIS was dragged down the hallway by some of the staff.

"Oi, now, careful with that." the Doctor warned, "Park it properly. No scratches."

One of the staff walked up to the Doctor and handed him a card that said 'Have a nice day' in futuristic print before walking away. The Doctor looked down at the card before looking at the retreating alien's back like it was mad.

XXX

Autumn was still staring at the wall when she heard the Doctor's voice through the door, "Autumn?" he called, "Are you in there?"

The metal spider scurried into a vent.

Autumn ignored him, not even glancing at the door when it opened and he walked in, "Aye Aye." he called, frowning when he saw her face, "Have you been crying?" he asked as he sat down next to her.

"One of the staff just told me about the war between the Ayries and the Eiteens." she said instead of answering. The Doctor eyes widened and he shifted as he started to understand, "How all they Ayries were wiped out." she turned to look at him, "You knew, didn't you?" he hesitated a second before nodding solemnly, "And you didn't tell me?!" she stood up, suddenly angry.

She felt so betrayed! She had trusted him and he'd let her down. He hadn't told her something SO important about her family and her speices. And now she'd had to find out like this. She'd much rather him tell her.

"I just didn't see the point of hurting you more than you already were." he replied calmly.

She shook her head, "I had a right to know!" she argued, "How would you feel if it was the other way around?" she shook her head and stomped over to the observation window.

"Alright, I'm sorry." he told her, coming to stand next to her, "I should've told you."

"Yes, you should have." she agreed, still quite angry.

He mulled something over in his head before nodding to himself, "Pass me your phone."

"Why?" she frowned, not really in the mood to talk to him.

"Just pass me it." he insisted and she sighed, but got it of her jeans pocket and handed it to him.

"With a bit of jiggery pokery..." he muttered, sonicing her phone, before handing to her, "There you go."

She frowned as she saw that she now had a signal, "What did you do?" she asked.

"Universal roaming." he replied, nodding at the phone, "Go on. Phone home."

She looked up at him with wide eyes before looking down at the phone, a vunerable expression on her face. She swallowed hard and dialed her mother's home number.

" _Hello?"_ her mother's voice answered and Autumn sucked in a breath.

"Hi, momma." she replied shakily, tears in her eyes.

She wondered if her mother had heard about her disappearance or if she had phoned before it had happened.

" _Hi, darling._ " her mother replied casually and Autumn swallowed hard. For her mother it had only a few hours since they had last spoke but for Autumn it had been 8 months, _"I thought you were at work."_

"Yeah, I'm on my break." Autumn replied, "I, er, I phoned to tell you I've got to go away for a bit. It's a work thing."

She almost wanted to tell her mother what happened, but she wanted to let her mother think that her daughter was coming back. Just becuse Autumn had no hope didn't mean her mother couldn't have any.

" _Okay, how long will you be gone?_ " her mother asked.

"Just a few weeks."

 _"Alright then, honey."_ her mother sighed, " _I'll see you later."_

"Yeah," Autumn breathed, "I'll see you later." she quickly wiped the tears from her eyes, "I love you, mom."

" _Love you too, Sweetie."_ her mother replied.

Autumn pulled the phone away from her ear as her mother hung up. She put the phone back in her pocket and sucked in a breath.

"You alright?" the Doctor asked.

"No." she shook her head, turning to bury her head in his chest as he awardly rubbed her back.

He understood her pain, of course he did, he felt the same pain, but that didn't mean he knew how to comfort her or help her deal with it.

Suddenly the platform shook and the Doctor steadied them, "That's not supposed to happen." he remarked.

XXX

"That wasn't a gravity pocket." the Doctor commented as he and Autumn entered the Manchester suite, "I know gravity pockets and they don't feel like that."

"It did feel strange." Autumn agreed, she may not be as famillar with gravity pockets as the Doctor was but she had felt a few and this did feel different.

The Doctor began fiddling with a control pannel as Jabe approached the, "What do you think, Jabe?" he asked, "Listened to the engines, they pitched up about 30 hertz is that dodgy or what?"

"It's the sound of metal," Jabe replied, "It doesn't make any sense to me."

"Where's the engine room?" the Doctor wondered.

"I don't know..." Jabe answered, "But the maintenance duct is just behind our guest's suite, I could show you. And..." she gestured to Autumn, "...your wife."

"She's not my wife." the Doctor replied.

"Partner?" Jabe wondered.

"No." he shook his head.

"Concubine?"

"Nope."

Jabe glanced at Autumn, "Prostitute..."

"Nope." Autumn answered, amused rather than offended like most people would be.

She'd calmed down outwardly after her meltdown but the inner turmoil was still there, bubling away beneath the surface. Her emotionally mask was back on and she didn't think she'd be taking it of any time soon. It was so much easier to ignore pain than to face it and she'd gotten good at ignoring pain.

"We're just friends." she told the tree before she started coughing violently.

The Doctor cast a concerned glance at her, "Are you alright?"

"Yep." she nodded, letting out another cough and smiling awarkdly.

"Right," the Doctor nodded, turning to Jabe, "Maintenance duct, then?"

Autumn frowned as Jabe lead the way to the maintenance duct; where had that cough come from? She knew that whenever she lied she couldn't stop coughing, but she hadn't said anything that wasn't true. She most definatley _wasn't_ a prostitute and she and the Doctor _were_ just friends.

Weird.

Maybe she was getting a cold. Yeah, that was it.


	9. The End of the World: Earth Death

The End of the World: Earth Death

"Who's in charge of Platform One?" the Doctor asked as he, Autumn and Jabe made their way through the maintenance duct, "Is there a captain or what?"

"There's just the steward and the staff." Jabe replied, "All the rest is controlled by the metal man."

"Do you mean the computer?" Autumn asked, "But who has control of that?"

"The Corporation." Jabe answered, "They move Platform One from one artistic event to another."

"I wouldn't call this an 'artistic event'." Autumn commented.

"But there's no one from the corporatio on board." the Doctor reasoned.

"They're not needed." Jabe told him, "This facility is purley automatic. It's the height of the alpha class. Nothing can go wrong."

"Oh, trust me," Autumn muttered, "When he's around, _everything_ can go wrong."

Seriously, everywhere they went they found some sort of trouble. She was beginning to think that someone had put a curse on the Doctor so that he had the worst luck in the Universe.

"Unsinkable?" the Doctor asked, ignoring Autumn's comment since he knew that she loved the adventures they had just as much as he did.

"If you like." Jabe replied, "The nautical metaphor is appropriate."

"Nothing's unskinkable." Autumn remarked.

"You're telling me." the Doctor commented, "I was on board another ship once. They said that was unsinkable... I ended up clinging to the iceberg, it wasn't half cold." he paused a moment, "So, what you're saying is, if we get in trouble there's no one to help us out?"

"I'm afraid not." Jabe answered.

"Fantastic." the Doctor grinned, walking on.

"I don't understand ." Jabe frowned, "In what way is THAT fantastic?"

"The worse it gets, the more fun he has." Autumn told her.

"So, tell me, Jabe." the Doctor began, "What's a tree like you doing in a place like this?"

"Respect from the Earth." Jabe replied.

"Oh, come on." he scoffed, "Everyone on this Platform is worth zillions."

"Well... perhaps it's a case of having to be seen at the right occasions." Jabe said.

"In case your share prices drop?" he asked, "I know you lot, you've got massive forests everywhere, roots all over the place. And there's always money in land."

"All the same, you respect the Earth as a family." Jabe replied, "So many species evolved from that planet, Mankind is just one. I'm another. My ancestors were transplanted from the planet down below, I'm a direct descendant of the tropical rainforest."

"Hold on..." the Doctor said as they reached a door and he flashed the sonic over it, trying to open it.

"And what about your ancestry, Doctor?" Jabe asked and both he and Autumn stiffened, "Perhaps you could tell a story or two. Perhaps a man only enjoys trouble, when... there's nothing else left."

The Doctor refused to look at her, focussing on unlocking the door as she continued speaking, "I scanned you earlier. The metal machine had trouble identifying your species, refused to admit your existence. And even when it named you, I wouldn't believe it. But it was right." she moved closer to him slightly, "I know where you're from. Forgive me for intruding, but it's remarkable that you even exist. I just wanted to say... how sorry I am." he turned her, an empty look on his face as Autumn watched the exchange awkwardly in the background.

The computer beeped and the door opened. The Doctor snapped back to himself and the three of them walked through the door into a room with giant metal fans circulating above a walkway.

"Is it me or is it a bit nippy?" the Doctor asked. He walked over to a pannel in the wall and started sonicing it open, "Fair do's though, that's a great bit of air conditioning. Sort of, nice and old fashioned. Bet they call it retro. Gotcha!"

The panel opened and a metal spider scampered out and up the wall.

"What is that?" Autumn asked.

"Is it part of the 'retro'?" Jabe wondered.

"I don't think so." the Doctor replied, "Hold on..."

The Doctor pointed the sonic at the spider but it just ran father away when a vine whipped out of Jabe's arm and knocked the spider into the Doctor's hands, "Hey! Nice liana!" he complimented.

"Thank you." Jabe blushed, "We're no supposed to show them in public."

"Don't worry, we won't tell anybody." the Doctor promised before turning to examine the spider, "Now then, who's been bringing the pets on board."

"What does it do?" Jabe asked.

"Sabotage." the Doctor replied, grimly

"Earth Death in ten minutes." the computer announced.

"And the temperature's about to rocket." he added, "Come on."

XXX

The Doctor, Autumn and Jabe ran into a smoke filled corridor where the staff was gathered around the door to the Stewards office, which was the source of the smoke. Sunlight was seeping through the cracks of the door.

"Come on!" the Doctor exclaimed as they made their way through the crowd, "Get back!" he flashed the sonic over the control panel.

"Sunfilter rising." the computer said, "Sunfilter rising."

"Was the Steward in there?" Jabe asked as the cracks of light disappeared.

"You can smell him." the Doctor replied grimly.

XXX

"The metal machine confirms." Jabe announced to the guests gathered in the Manchester Suite as the Doctor stood to the side with Autumn, fiddling with the spider, "The spider devices have infiltrated the whole of Platform One."

"How is that possible?" Cassandra asked, "Our private rooms our protected by a code wall, moisturise me, moisturise me!"

"Summon the Steward!" the Moxx of Balhoon exclaimed.

"I'm afraid the Steward is dead." Jabe told them grimly.

All the guests gasped, but Cassandra just rolled her eyes.

"Who killed him?" the Moxx asked.

"This whole event was sponsored by the Face of Boe!" Cassandra pointed out, "He invited us! Talk to the Face, talk to the Face!"

"It's not hard to find out." Autumn remarked.

"Someone brought a little pet on board." the Doctor agreed, holding up the spider, "Let's send him back to master."

He placed the spider on the floor and it scuttled away, pausing in front of Cassandra, who looked away shiftily, before stopping in front of the Adherents of the Repeated Meme.

"The Adherents of the Repeated Meme!" Cassandra gasped, "J'accuse!"

"That's all very well," the Doctor said, striding over to the Adherents, "And really kind of obvious, but if you stop and think about it..." he grabbed one of the Adherent's arms and ripped it off, "A repeated meme is just and idea. And that's all they are. An idea." he ripped one of the wires off of the Adherent's arm and they all collapsed into a heap of black cloaks, "Remote control droids, nice little cover for the _real_ troublemaker." he nudged the spider with his foot, "Go on, Jimbo! Go home."

The spider scuttled over to Cassandra, who scowled, "I bet you were the school swot and never got kissed." she muttered, "At arms!" her two surgeons lifted their canisters and pointed them at the Doctor.

"Oh, what are you gonna do?" Autumn rolled her eyes, stepping next to the Doctor, "Moisturise us?"

"With acid." Cassandra smirked, "Oh, too late anyway. My spiders have control of the mainframe. Oh, you all carried them as gifts, tax free, past every code wall. I'm not just a pretty face."

"Sabotaging a ship while you're still inside it?" the Doctor raised an eybrow, "How stupid's that?"

"I'd hoped to manufacture a hostage situation with myself as one of the victims." Cassandra explained, "The compensation would have been enormous."

"Five billion years and it still comes down to money." the Doctor shook his head.

"Do you think it's cheap, looking like this?" she asked, "Flatness cost a fortune."

"Arrest her!" the Moxx yelled.

"Oh, shut it, pixie." Cassandra rolled her eyes, "I've still got my final option."

"Earth Death in 3 minutes." the computer announced.

"And here it comes." Cassandra smirked, "You're just as useful dead, all of you. I have shares in your rival companies and they'll triple in price as soon as you're dead. My spiders are primed and ready to destroy the safety systems. How did that old Earth song go? 'Burn, baby, burn'."

"Then you'll burn with us." Jabe remarked.

"Oh, I'm so sorry." Cassandra commented, "I know the use of teleportation is strictly forbidden, but... I'm such a naughty thing. Spiders, activate!" a series of expolsions rocked the Platoform, "Force fields gone with the planet about to explode. At least it'll be quick. Just like my fifth husband." she giggled, "Oh, shame on me. Buh-bye, darlings! Buh-bye, my darlings..." she and her surgeons teleported out in a flash of blue light.

"Heat levels rising." the computer warned.

"Reset the computer!" the Moxx orderd.

"Only the Steward would know how." Jabe replied.

"We can do it by hand." Autumn told them.

"There must be a system restore switch." the Doctor nodded, "Autumn, Jabe, come on." they started towards the door and he called, "You lot, just chill!" over his shoulder.

XXX

Autumn, the Doctor and Jabe ran through the maintenance corridoor.

"Heat levels, critical." the computer said, "Heat levels, critical."

The trio reached the door and entered the ventilation chamber.

"Oh." the Doctor muttered, "And guess where the switch is." he stared at the switch on the wall on the other side of the fans.

"Heat levels rising. Heat levels riseing."

The Doctor pulled a lever down and the fans slowed down slightly

"External teprature, 5 thousand degrees."

The Doctor let go of the lever and made to pass the fans but as soon as he let go the fans sped up again. He looked helplessly at the fans when Jabe stepped up and pulled the lever down.

"No." Autumn stepped forward, "I'll do it." she moved Jabe out of the way and pulled the lever down, "The heat will vent through this place. You should go."

Jabe hesitated, looking between them, before nodding and running back the way they came.

"Right," Autumn turned to the Doctor, "Stop wasting time, Time Lord."

The Doctor grinned at her and ran to stand in front of the first fan.

"Heat levels, rising. Heat levels, rising. Heat levels, hazardous."

The Doctor dodged the first fan and looked up anxiously at the next one as Autumn watched.

"Shields malfunctioning. Shields malfunctioning."

The Doctor glanced back at Autum before looking back at the second fan.

"Heat levels, crititcal. Heat levels, critical."

The Doctor dodged the second fan.

"Heat levels, rising. Heat levels, rising."

Autumn winced as she held down the lever, the heat starting to get to her. The Doctor cast her a concered glance before looking back at the last fan.

"Planet explodes in 10... 9..."

The Doctor stepped through the last fan and pulled the switch down, "Raise shields!" he exclaimed.

He walked back past the fans to Autumn and looked at her in concern, "You alright?"

"Emotionally? No." she replied, "Psyically? I'll live."

He gently took her hands and inspected them, wincing when he saw the burns, "I'll fix them when we get back to the TARDIS."

"Okay." she smiled.

He smiled back and dropped her hands before, without even notcing that he'd done it, quickly kissing her forhead.

He walked out the chamber as Autumn stood there, touching her forehead with an unreadable expression on her face.

XXX

Jabe approached the Doctor and Autumn as they walked back into the Manchester suite, "Are you okay?" she asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine." the Doctor answered as Autumn just nodded, "I'm full of ideas, I'm bristling with them. Idea number one, teleporation through five thousand degrees needs some kind of feed. Idea number two, this feed must be hidden nearby." he strode over to the ostrich egg and cracked it open, revealing the teleportation feed, "Idea number three, if you're as clever as me, then a teleportation feed can be reversed." he twisted a dial on the feed and Cassandra appeared.

"Ah, you should have seen their alien little faces." she laughed before noticing where she was, "Oh."

"The Last Human." the Doctor sneered.

"So, you passed my little test." Cassandra said, flustered, "Bravo. This makes you eligible to join the er... the human club."

"People have died, Cassandra." the Doctor remarked, "You murdered them."

"That depends on your definintion of 'people'." Cassandra commented.

"Oh, don't start with that crap." Autumn rolled her eyes.

"It's enough of a technicality to keep your lawyers dizzy for centuries." Cassandra smirked, "Take me to court then, Doctor! And watch me smile, and cry, and flutter..."

"And creak?" Autumn rasied her eybrows.

"And what?" Cassandra frowned.

"Creak." Autumn clarified, "C-R-E-A-K. You're creaking."

"What?" Cassnadra paniced as her skin tightened and her eyes became blod shot, "Ah! Ah! I'm drying out! Oh, sweet heavens! Moisturise me! Moisturise me! Where are my surgeons? My lovely boys! It's too hot!"

"She raised the temparature." the Doctor reminded her as red blotches starting covering her.

"Have pity!" she begged, "Moisturise me! Oh, Doctor!" she began shrivling up as the Doctor and Autumn watched, unfased, "I'm... too... young!" she exclaimed her last words before she popped.

The Doctor and Autumn just walked out of the room, not even a little bit bothered.

XXX

Autumn stood in front on the observation widow, looking out at the remains of the Earth outside. She thought she would have been more upset to see the planet she grew up on die but she wasn't. She had already lost her home a long time ago.

She looked back as the Doctor came to stand next to her, "You alright?"

She took a breath, "I will be." she answered.

She stared out at the Earth before looking up at him, "But I think I need a break." she told him, "Of looking for my sister." she turned to look back at the Earth, "There's only so much dissappointment I can take." she turned back to him, "Maybe we can look for her every other trip?"

He nodded, "That sounds like a good idea."

He took her hand and she smiled up at him before they walked back to the TARDIS, hand in hand.


	10. The Unquiet Dead: Walking Dead

The Unquiet Dead: Walking Dead

"Hold that one down!" the Doctor shouted to Autumn over the alarms and shaking of the TARDIS.

"I AM!" she yelled back.

"Well, hold them BOTH down!" he remarked.

Autumn sighed before lifting her leg up onto the console and holding the lever down with her foot, "You're a terrible driver!"

He ignored her, "1860!" he exclaimed instead, "How does 1869 sound?"

"Quite dull, actually." she replied, "But knowing you..." she shrugged, "Why not?"

"Hold on," he pulled another lever, "Here we go!"

XXX

Somehow the Doctor and Autumn had both ended up on the floor due to the TARDIS's shaking. They were both laughing as they got up.

"That was fun." Autumn remarked. Most people might have hated been thrown about the TARDIS but she found exilerating, like rollercoasters. Although, after being on the most dangerous rollercoaster in the Universe, _that_ had been a trip and half, other rollercoasters seemed rather boring in comparison.

"You're telling me!" the Doctor grinned, "Are you alright?"

"Yeah." she nodded, "Where are we, then?"

The Doctor pulled the monnitor round and examined in, "I did it!" he cheered, "Give the man a medal. Earth, Naples, Decemebr 24th 1860."

"It's Christmas." she scrunched up her nose in a way that the Doctor found adorably hilarious, "I'm not fond of Christmas." she sighed heavily, "Oh, well, let's go." she started towards the doors.

"Oi, oi, oi!" the Doctor called, making her stop and turn to face him with her eybrows raised, "Where do you think you're going?!"

"Outside." she said slowly.

"Go out there dressed like that, you'll start a riot, Barbarella!" he remarked and she scowled, knowing what was coming next, "The wardbrove's through there. First left, sec..."

"I know where it is!" she cut in, starting towards the hallway. They'd had a few trips to the past and she always had to dress up. She hated it! She had never really been into fashion, preferring to wear something she was comfortable in rather than something she looked good in.

She wasn't bothered about how she looked so she usually just throwed on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt along with a leather jacket and her old converse. But the clothes they wore in 1860 were seriously uncomfortable and they weren't even that nice to look at.

She sighed and continued on her way to the wardrobe.

She hated trips to the past.

XXX

The Doctor was under the TARDIS doing unneccisary repair work when Autumn walked in, scowling and dressed appropriatly for the times. She huffed and came to stand before him, crossing her arms.

He looked up at her and almost bumped his head on the console above, "You're beautiful." he remarked and she blushed slightly before they both looked away, awkwardly.

It wouldn't have been as awkward if he had said that she _looked_ beautiful. That would have been fine because she had dressed up and most people could look nice if they dressed up. But he'd said _she_ was beautiful. Just _her_.

She coughed awkwardly, "Are you not changing?"

"I've changed my jumper!" he replied and she rolled her eyes as he jumped out from under the grillling.

"Let's go, then." she held out a her hand for him and he took it.

The Doctor frowned down at their linked hands as they walked to the doors. They'd been holding hands a lot lately. Not that that meant anything, even if it DID feel nice, friends held hands all the time. And it was eaiser to run if they were hold hands because they were at the same pace and it was harder for one of them to get left behind, even if one of them inevitably got left behind most of the time. It still didn't mean anything.

He shook off his thoughts as they walked out of the TARDIS into the falling snow.

"It's freezing!" Autumn colmplained. Here she was, outside in the snow and she was wearing a _dress!_ It was ridiculous.

"Come on," the Doctor offered her his arm and she took it, "Here we go."

They walked down the streets passing carriges and carol singers. As they crossed the street the Doctor purchased a newspaper off of a vendor and the scanned the front page.

"I got the flight a bit wrong." he admitted as they walked.

Autumn rolled her eyes, he was always taking them to the wrong places, some of them not even that close to were they _actually_ wanted to go. How can you aim for 2020 and end up in 2005?

"That's a surprise!" she remarked sarcastically, "Where are we then?"

"It's not 1860, it's 1869." he told her.

She shrugged, "Not that far out." she remarked, "It's just as dull as it was before."

She had gotten used to running about and saving people from aliens and being on spaceships or in the future. So just walking around in the snow wearing uncomfortable old fashioned clothes was pretty dull in comparison.

"And it's not Naples." he added, "It's Cardiff."

"Cardiff's in england, right?" she asked, she wasn't that good at old Earth georaphy, most of them had different names in the future.

"No it's in Britain." he replied.

"And that's in England?" she guessed.

"No, England's in Britain."

"Right." she nodded, still slightly confused when suddenly screams started to pierce the air.

The Doctor and Autumn looked each other seriously before grins spread across their faces, "That's more like it!" he remarked, grabbing her hand, because like he said before it was eaisier to run when they were holding hands, and running towards the screams.

XXX

The Doctor and Autumn ran into the theatre to see a blue gas like creature emerging from an old woman's mouth.

"Fantastic." the Doctor remarked.

"What is it?" Autumn asked.

He shrugged, "No idea."

The last of the creature left the old woman's body and she slumped back in her seat, dead. The Doctor approached an man on the stage, "Did you see where it came from?" he asked the man.

"Ah." the man turned to him, "The wag reveals himself, does he? I trust you're satisfied, sir!"

"Hey!" Autumn yelled as she saw an old man and a young woman carrying the old woman's body off. She lifted up her skirt and ran outside after them.

"Be careful!" the Doctor yelled to her as he saw her running after them. He jumped onto the stage, "Did it say anything?" he asked the man, "Could it speak? I'm the Doctor, by the way."

"Doctor?" the man eyed him, "You look more like a navy."

"What's WRONG with this jumper?" he asked indignantly.

XXX

Autumn ran after the two body snachers as the loaded the old woman's body into a hearse.

"Excuse me?" she called as she reached them.

"Oh, it's such a tragedy, miss." the woman told her, "Don't worry yourself, me and the master will deal with it. The fact is, this poor lady's been taken with the brain fever and we have to get her to the infirmary."

"I'm not stupid." Autumn rolled her eyes, "I know she's dead." she pushed past her and felt the old woman's forehead, "Really cold." she muttered. She'd bet that she'd been dead for a while, at least a day. So how was she in the theatre?

Suddenly her mouth was covered by a cloth with chloroform on it as the old man snuck up behind her. She struggled, smelling the chloroform. Some might think that she might be able to fight it more than a human, but was actually the opposite. Ayries were really sensitive to drugs like chloroform.

She struggled again slightly before her world went black.

XXX

In the theatre the blue light zoomed across the room and dived into a gas lamp, dissappering.

"Gas!" the Doctor exclaimed in realisation, "It's made of gas!"

XXX

The Doctor walked down the steps of the theatre just in time the to see the young woman and the old man put Autumn's body in the hearse and slam the door.

"Autumn!" he yelled, running towards the hearse, but it was too late.

"You're not escaping me, sir!" the man from the theatre exclaimed, coming to stand beside the Doctor.

"Yeah, mate, not now, thanks." the Doctor waved him off before he spotted a coach and ran towards it, "Oi, you!" he yelled to the diver, "Follow that hearse!" he jumped into the coach.

"You can't do that, sir!" the theatre man protested.

"Why not?"

"Why not?! I'll give you a very good reason why not! this is my coach!"

"Well, get in then!" the Doctor rolled his eyes, pulling him in, "Move!"

"Everything in order, Mr. Dickens?" the driver asked as the coached started to follow the hearse.

"No!" the theatre man, Mr. Dickens, replied, "It is not!"

"What did he say?" the Doctor frowned.

"Let me say this first." Dickens remarked, "I'm not without a sense of humour..."

"Dickens?" the Doctor cut in.

"Yes." Dickens nodded.

"Charles Dickens?"

"Yes."

"THE Charles Dickens?"

"Shall I remove the gentleman, sir?" the driver asked.

"Charles Dickens!" the Doctor grinned, "You're brilliant, you are! Completly 100% brilliant! I've read 'em all! Great Expectations, Oliver Twist and what's the other one, the one with the ghost?"

"A Christmas Carol?" Dickens suggested.

"No, no, no," the Doctor shook his head, "The one with the trains... The Signal Man, that's it, terrifying!" Dickens smiled, quite pleased, "The best short story ever written! You're a genius!"

"Do you want me to get rid of him, sir?" the driver asked again.

"Er, no," Dickens replied, "I think he can stay."

"Honestly, Charles," the Doctor said, "Can I call you Charles? I'm such a big fan."

"...what?" Dickens frowned, "A what?"

"Fan!" the Doctor replied, "Number One Fan, that's me."

"How exactly are you a fan?" Dickens asked, "In what way do you resemble a means of keeping oneself cool?"

"No, it means 'fanatic'," he explained, "Devoted to. Mind you, I've gotta say, that American bit in Martin Chuzzlewit, what was that about?! Was that just padding or what? I mean, it's rubbish, that bit."

"I thought you were my fan." Dickens commented, disgruntled.

"Ah, well," the Doctor shrugged, "If you can't take critisim... go on, do the death of Little Nell, it cracks me up. No," he turned back to the driver, "Sorry, come on, faster!"

"Who exactly IS in that hearse?" Dickens asked.

"My friend." he replied, "And it's my fault. She's in my care, and now she's in danger."

He knew Autumn could look after herself, which was one of the things he liked about her, but that didn't stop him from worrying about her.

"Why are we wasting my time talking about dry old books?" Dickens wondered, "This is much more important. Driver! Be swift! The chase is on!"

"Yes, sir!" the driver nodded.

"Thatta boy, Charlie!" the Doctor grinned.

"Nobody calls me Charlie." Dickens remarked.

"The ladies do." the Doctor pointed out.

"How do you know that?"

"I told you, I'm your Number one..."

"Number One Fan," Dickens cut in, "Yes..."

XXX

Autumn blinked awake and rubbed her eyes, groaning slightly.

Behind her, blue gas entered a corpse.

XXX

Dickens knocked on the door to the undertaker's and the young woman who had kindnapped Autumn, Gwyneth, opened the door, "I'm sorry, sir, we're closed."

"Nonsense!" Dickens scoffed, "Since when did an undertaker keep office hours? The dead don't die on schedule. I demand to see your master."

"He's not in, sir." Gwyneth told him. She started to close the door but Dickens forced it open.

"Don't lie to me, child!" Dickens said angrily.

"I'm awfully sorry, Mr. Dickens, but the master's indisposed." Gwyneth replied as a gas lamp flared up behind her.

"Having trouble with your gas?" the Doctor inquired.

"What in the Shakespeare is going on?" Dickens wondered.

XXX

Autumn tensed and turned to look behind her to see a corpse rise from a coffin. She rolled her eyes, "Oh, for God's sake!" she hopped up and walked over to the door as the corpse climbed out the coffin. She tried to open the door, but it was locked, "Come on!" she pulled on the door harder.

XXX

The Doctor forced his way inside and pressed his ear against the wall.

"You're not allowed inside, sir!" Gwyneth exclaimed.

"There's something inside the walls." the Doctor remarked.

XXX

Autumn spun around, her back against the door, as the old woman for the theatre's body rose from her coffin.

"Who are you?" Autumn asked one of corpses, knowing an alien had possed them, "What speices are you?!"

XXX

The Doctor and Dickens looked up as the heard Autumn shouting and Gwyneth closed her eyes in dismay.

"That's her." the Doctor breathed.

He ran off towards her voice and Dickens followed.

XXX

The corpses advanced towards Autumn and she sent a hard kick to the male corpse's chest. He stumbled back but continued foward, "I'm NEVER wearing a dress again." Autumn muttered.

Dresses, especially this one, were really hard to fight in. If she had been in her normal clothes both of the corpses would have defeated by now.

XXX

The Doctor charged past Sneed, who was the old man who had assisted in Autumn's kidnapping.

"This is my house!" Sneed exclaimed after him.

XXX

Autumn elbowed the male corpse in the stomach and flipped him onto his back just as the Doctor kicked the door in, ready to rescue her.

"Where have you been?!" Autumn walked over to him as he blinked at her in surprise, "You're late!"

"Sorry." he muttered, shaking his head at himself. Of course she would have rescued herself. This was Autumn he was talking about.

"Who's he?" Autumn nodded her head at Dickens who was standing in the doorway with the Doctor.

"Charles Dickens." he replied.

"Okay." she nodded, turning to face the corpses who had stood up again.

"Is it a prank?" Dickens frowned, "It must be. We're under some sort of mesmeric influence."

Autumn rolled her eyes, she could tell he was going to get on her nerves.

"No, we're not." the Doctor replied, "The dead are walking." he turned to the corpses, "My name's the Doctor and she's Autumn. Who are you, then? What do you want?"

"We're failing." the male corpse replied, his voice sounding creepily like a child, "Open the rift, we're dying. Trapped in this form, cannot sustain, help us."

The corpses raised their heads to the ceiling and wailed as the gas poured out of them before they collapsed to the floor.


	11. The Unquiet Dead: Meet the Gelth

The Unquiet Dead: Meet the Gelth

"What gives you the right," Autumn began angrily talking to Sneed as Gwyneth made tea, "To kidnapp someone? AND I felt your hands having a wonder, you pig!"

"I won't be spoken to like this!" Sneed exclaimed.

"Then you leave me with those corpses, hoping they'd kill me!" she continued.

"It's not my fault, it's this house!" Sneed defended.

"Oh, so the house made you kinapp me?" Autumn asked sarcastically, rolling her eyes. She sighed, they needed to find out what was going on, "What were you saying?"

"It always had a reputation." he replied, "Haunted. But I never had much bother until a few months back. And then the stiffs..." Dickens shot him an offended look, "...the er, dear departed started getting restless."

"Tomyrott." Dickens scoffed.

"You witnissed it!" Sneed reminded him, "Can't keep the beggars down, sir! They walk. And it's the queerest thing that they hang on to scraps..."

Gwyneth walked over to the Doctor and Autumn and handed them each a cup of tea, "Two surgars, sir. And milk for you, miss, just how you both like it."

The Doctor and Autumn glanced at each other before watching Gwyneth curiously as she walked away.

"One old fella who used to be a sexton almost walked into his own memorial service!" Sneed continued, "Just like the old lady going to your performance, sir! Just as she planned."

Dickens rolled his eyes, "Morbid fancy."

"Oh, Charles you were there." the Doctor remarked.

"I saw nothing but an illusion." he insisted.

"Oh, shut up!" Autumn rolled her eyes, "Stop denying what's right in front of you because it's wasting our time and, frankly, it's annoying." Dickens looked stunned that someone, especially a woman, would speak to him like that but she just turned to Sneed, "What about the gas?"

"That's new, miss," he replied, "Never seen anything like that."

"Means it's getting stronger," the Doctor remarked, "The rift's getting wider and somthing's sneaking through."

"And what rift are you speaking of?" Dickens asked, playing along with their delusions.

"It's a weak point in time and space." the Doctor explained, "The connection between this place and another. That's the cause of ghosts stories, most of the time."

"That's how I got the house so cheap." Sneed realised as Dickens snuck out of the room, "Stories going back generations. Echoes in the dark. Queer songs in the air and this feeling like a... shadow. Passing over your soul. Mind you, truth be told, it's been good for business. Just what people expect from a gloomy old trade like mine."

" _You take Gwyneth and I'll take Charles._ " the Doctor said in Autumn's mind and she looked over at him in surprise.

He didn't often speak to her in her mind, only when they had to. She suspected he was reluctant to because it reminded him of his people, of how he used to able to hear a faint buzzing in his head that signified there was other Time Lords out there, and how it wasn't there any more. How _they_ weren't there anymore.

" _What?"_ she asked him.

" _There's something about Gwyneth."_ he told her, _"And we might need Charles._ "

 _"Okay."_ she replied, sighing.

XXX

"Checking for strings?" the Doctor called from the door way as he watched Dickens search the coffins in the chapel of rest.

"Wires, perhaps?" Dickens replied, glancing at him, "There must be some mechanism behind this fraud!"

"Oh, come on, Charles." the Doctor uncrosed his arms and walked over to him, "You've got one of the best minds in the world. You saw those gas creatures."

"I cannot accept that." Dickens told him.

"And what does the human body do when is decomposes?" he asked rhetorically, "It breaks down and produces gas. Perfect home for these gas things, they can slip inside and use it as a vehicle. Just like your driver and his coach."

"Stop it!" Dickens exclaimed, "Can it be that I have the world entirely wrong?"

"Not wrong." the Doctor replied, "There's just more to learn."

"I've always rallied against the fantasies." Dickens told him, "Oh, I loved an illusion as much as the next man, revelled in them, but that's what they were. Illusions! The real world is something else. I dedicated myself to that. Injustices. Great social causes. I hoped that I was a force for good. Now you tell me that the real world is a realm of spectres and jack O' lanterns. In which case have I wasted my brief span here, Doctor? Has it all been for nothing?"

XXX

Gwyneth lit a gas lamp when Autumn walked in and grabbed a cloth, about to help her with the washing up, "Please, miss!" Gwyneth exclaimed, "You shouldn't be helping! It's not right!"

Autumn glanced at her before putting the cloth down and leaning on the wall behind her, "So, how much does Sneed pay you?" she asked, trying to make conversation. She needed to find out what was up with her and she'd much rather speak to Gwyneth than Dickens. She was right in her earlier assesment; he did get on her nerves.

"Eight pounds a year, miss." Gwyneth replied.

Autumn frowned, trying to remember how much a pound was worth, currency had changed a lot since then and they didn't even have pounds in her time, though she thought she remembered seeing one in a museum on a school trip, "Is that a lot?"

Gwyneth nodded, "I would have been happy with six."

"So, what do you do then?" she asked, "Except work for Sneed?

"Nothing, miss." she replied, "I don't have time for anything else."

"Maybe you should have something other than him in your life." Autumn suggested.

"Ah, now, that's no fair." Gwyneth remarked, "He's not so bad, old Sneed. He was very kind to take me in. Because I lost my mum and dad to the flu when I was twelve."

"I'm sorry." Autumn said, full of empathy and a little sympathy. She at least had 26 years with her parents; Gwyneth had barely 12.

"Thank you, miss." Gwyneth smiled, "But I'll be with them again, one day. Sitting with them in paradise. I should be so blessed. They're waiting for me. Maybe you parents are up there waiting for you too, miss."

"Maybe." Autumn muttered quietly. She didn't believe in heaven or God but she didn't want to ridicule the girl's belief just because she didn't belive in the same thing, "Who told you they were dead?"

Gwyneth quickly turned back to the washing up and shrugged, "I don't know, must've been the Doctor."

Autumn eyed the girl, she knew the Doctor would never just casually mention her parents' death to a stranger so it was obvious that he hadn't told her and no one else there knew so Gwyneth had somehow just known, "I lost my parents ages ago." she told her, seeing if Gwyneth knew anything else.

"But you only just _truly_ lost them." Gwyneth replied.

"Yeah." Autumn said thickly.

The pain of her parents' death was still there, weighingn heavily on her, but she was inoring it. She'd face it later when she was less fragile and ready to deal with it. Maybe if she found her sister they could face it together. She knew the Doctor was sympathetic and had experienced the same thing but it was different for him; he'd left home already and he was centuries older than her. She might be twenty six but she still wasn't ready to let go and she wanted to mourn with someone who understood, like her sister.

"How could you know that?" she asked Gwyneth, shaking off her thoughts.

"Mr. Sneed says I think too much." Gwyneth replied, "I'm all alone down here. I bet you've got dozens of servants, haven't you miss?"

"We don't have servants were I'm from." Autumn half lied. They _did_ have servants on Earth in her time, though she herself had never had one, but there were none on Alpha 74, which was technically where she was really from.

"And you've come such a long way." Gwyneth remarked.

"How did you know that?" she asked again.

"You're from America." Gwyneth said instead of answering, "But before that you came from the sky." she stared at Autumn, "I've heard about America before but it didn't sound like that. All the people half naked, for shame. And the creatures, such creatures. And the metal stairs that move. And the birds in the sky... they're metal as well. Metal birds with people in them. People flying. And you - you've flown so far, further than anyone! Touched by an angel and ripped away from the people you love the most. The things you've seen... the darkness... the big bad wolf-" she staggered backwards, afraid, "I'm sorry! I'm sorry, miss!"

"It's okay." Autumn told her gently.

"I can't help it," Gwyneth told her, "Ever since I was a little girl. My mum said I had the sight. She told me to hide it!"

"But it's getting stronger." the Doctor from the doorway making Gwyneth jump but Autumn didn't flinch, having known for a while that he was there, "More powerful, is that right?"

"All the time, sir." Gwyneth replied, "Every night. Voices in my head."

"You grew up on top of the rift." the Doctor explained, "You're part of it. You're the key."

"I've tried to make sense of it, sir." she told him, "Consulted with spiritualists, table wrappers, all sorts."

"Well, that should help." he commented, "You can show us what to do."

"What to do where, sir?" Gwyneth asked.

"We're going to have a senace."

XXX

"This is how Madam Mortlock summons those from the Land of Mists." Gwyneth told them as they all sat around a table, "Down in Mid Town. Come. We must all join hands."

"I can't take part in this." Dickens remarked, standing up.

"Humbug?" the Doctor asked, "Come on, open mind."

"This is precisely the sort of cheap mummery I try to unmask." he commented, "Seances? Nothing but luminous tambourines and a squeeze box between the knees. This girl knows nothing."

"Now, don't antagonize her." the Doctor remarked, "I love a happy medium."

"You REALLY need to stop making stupid jokes." Autumn commented.

"Come on," he said to Dickens, "We might need you." Dickens reluctantly sat down again, "Good man. Now, Gwyneth. Reach out."

"Speak to us." Gwyneth called, "Are you there? Spirits?" Dickens rolled his eyes, "Come. Speak to us that we may relieve your burden." she raised her eyes to the ceiling as a murmuring filled the room.

"Do you hear that?" Autumn whispered, straining to hear the murmurs.

"Nothing can happen." Dickens insisted, "This is sheer folly."

"Oh, for God's sake!" Autumn exclaimed, pointing to Gwyneth as the gas creatures began to surround her, "Look at her!"

"I feel them." Gwyneth gasped, "I feel them!"

"I can't hear what their saying." Autumn muttered.

"The can't get through the rift." the Doctor told her, "Gwyneth, it's not controlling you, you're controlling it. Now look deep. Allow them through."

"I can't!" Gwyneth exclaimed.

"You can, Gwyneth." Autumn told her, "I know you can, and you know can. You just have to belive it. Make the link."

Gwyneth lowered her head and opened her eyes, "Yes."

Gas figures appeared behind Gwyneth and Dickens' mouth droppped open.

"Great God." Sneed gasped, "Spirits from the other side!"

"The other side of the Universe." the Doctor corrected.

"Pity us." the gas creatures said, their voice childlike and seemingly innocent but Autumn saw through it and instantly didn't trust them, "Pity the Gelth. There is so little time, help us."

"What do you want us to do?"

"The rift." the Gelth replied, "Take the girl to the rift. Make the bridge."

Autumn narrowed her eyes, a little protective of Gwyneth after getting to know her, "Why?"

"We are so very few." the Gelth replied, "The last of our kind. We face exitiction."

Autumn narrowed her eyes again; she knew what it was like to almost be the last of her species, she might actually be the very last, and she could never speak about it like it was nothing, like the Gelth did just then. She would bet that there was a lot more of the Gelth than they let on.

"Why, what happened?" the Doctor asked.

"Once we had psysical form like you." the Gelth told them, "But then the war came."

"War?" Dickens frowned, "What war?"

"The Time War." the Gelth answered.

The Doctor and Autumn both tensed before glancing at each other. Autumn sighed internally, it was obvious to anyone with half a brain that the Gelth were suspicous but the Doctor held enough guilt over the Time War to cloud his judgement and help the Gelth.

"The whole Universe convulsed." the Gelth continued, "The Time War raged invisable to smaller species but devastating to higher forms. Our bodies wasted away. We're trapped in this gaseous state."

"So that's why you need the corpses." the Doctor remarked.

"We want to stand tall." the Gelth replied, "To feel the sunlight. To live again. We need a physical form, and your dead are abandoned. They're going to waste, give them to us!"

"No way." Autumn shook her head.

"Why not?" the Doctor asked.

Autumn sighed, she knew he was going to do this, "Because it's wrong." she said firmly, "And I don't trust them."

"It could save their lives." he pointed out.

She shrugged and they stared at each other for a while, arguing with their eyes.

"Open the rift." the Gelth called, "Let the Gelth through. We're dying. Help us. Pity the Gelth!"

The Gelth disappeared and Gwyneth collapsed onto the table. Autumn ran to her side, "Gwyneth?" she called but the girl didn't stir.

"All true." Dickens muttered, "It's all true."


	12. The Unquiet Dead: Clouded Judgement

The Unquiet Dead: Clouded Judgement

Autumn was sat next to Gwyneth who was lying unconcious on the couch. Gwyneth eyes blinked open and she slowly sat up.

"You need to rest." Autumn told her.

"But my angels, miss." Gwyneth protested, "They came, didn't they? They need me?"

"They do need you, Gwyneth." the Doctor told her, "You're their only chance of survival."

"Leave her alone!" Autumn snapped, "I've told you, I'm not going to let you force her to fight _your_ battles."

The Doctor sighed as Autumn handed Gwynwth something to drink.

"Well, what did you say, Doctor?" Sneed asked, "Explain it again. What are they?"

"Aliens." the Doctor answered.

"Like... foreigners, you mean?" Sneed wondered.

"Pretty foreign, yeah." the Doctor replied, "From up there." he pointed at the sky.

Sneed frowned, "Brecon?"

"Close." the Doctor nodded, "They've been trying to get through from Brecon to Cardiff but the road's blocked. Only a few can get through and even then they're weak. They can only test drive the bodies for so long, then they have to revert to gas and hide in the pipes."

"Which is why they need the girl." Dickens realised.

"I don't care." Autumn remarked, "I'm not letting them use her."

"But she could help." the Doctor argued, "Living on the rift, she's become part of it, she can open it up, make a bridge and let them through."

"Incredible." Dickens commented, "Ghosts that are not ghosts but beings from another world who can only exist in our world by inhabiting cadavers."

"Good system." the Doctor remarked, "It might work."

"No it won't." Autumn strode over to the Doctor, "I don't trust them! And neither would you if could see past your guilt and think logically! The Time War wasn't your fault and you need to get past it!"

"Oh, like you are?!" he countered.

She shook her head, "I've had a day." she deadpanned, "You've had years." she shook her head, "I'm not afraid to stand up to you like you're other companions were, Doctor. I'm not a little human that you can show off to, I know how to argue and you're _not_ using her."

"Don't I get a say, miss?" Gwyneth asked from behind her.

"Gwyneth, you don't understand." Autumn told her.

"You would say that miss." Gwyneth replied, "Because that's very clear inside your head, that you think I'm stupid."

Autumn looked away guiltily. It wasn't that she thought Gwyneth was stupid she just thought that everyone from that century was. She couldn't help it, not when her time was so advanced compared to here.

"Things might be very different where you're from." Gwyneth continued, "But here and now, I know my own mind. And the angels need me. Doctor, what do I have to do?"

"You don't HAVE to do anything." the Doctor told her.

"They've been singing to me since I was a child." Gwyneth remarked, "Sent by my mum on a holy mission. So tell me."

"We need to find the rift." the Doctor told them, "This house is on a weak spot, so there must be a spot that's weaker than any other. Mr. Sneed, what's the weakest part of this house? The place where most of the ghosts have been seen."

"That would be the Morgue." Sneed replied.

XXX

"Talk about Bleak House." the Doctor remarked as the walked into the mourge, Autumn scowling.

"Doctor, I think the room is getting colder." Dickens commented.

The Gelth flooded into the room and the leader positioned itself under an archway, "You have come to help!" it cheered, "Praise the Doctor! Praise him! Hurry! Please. So little time. Pity the Gelth."

"I'll take you somewhere else after the transfer." the Doctor told them, "Somewhere you can build proper bodies. This isn't a permanent solution, alright?"

"My angels." Gwyneth breathed, "I can help them live."

Autumn narrowed her eyes, noticing that the Gelth hadn't answered the Doctor's question, though the man himself hadn't seemed to notice.

"Okay, where's the week point?" the Doctor asked.

"Here, beneath the arch." the Gelth replied.

"Beneath the arch." Gwyneth muttered, going to stand beneath the arch.

"Established the bridge," the Gelth said, "Reach out of the void, let us through!"

"Yes." Gwyneth said, "I can see you! I can see you! Come!"

"Bridgehead establishing." the Gelth stated.

"Come!" Gwyneth cried, "Come to me! Come to this world, poor lost souls!"

"It has begun!" the Gelth declared, "The bridge is made!" Gwyneth's mouth opened and the Gelth poured out, "She had given herself to the Gelth!"

"There's rather a lot of them, eh?" Dickens remarked.

"The bridge is open." the Gelth said, "We descend." the Gleth's figure suddenly turned demonic and the gas turned from blue to red, "The Gelth will come through in force."

"You said you were _few_ in number!" Dickens exclaimed.

"A few billion." the Gelth corrected, "And all of us in need of corpses."

"I knew it." Autumn muttered as the bodies in the mourge began to rise.

"Gwyneth..." Sneed began, "Stop this! Listen to your master! This has gone far enough. Stop dabbling, child, leave these things alone. I beg of you-"

"Get back!" Autumn yelled, but it was too late.

A corpse grabbed Sneed and broke his neck before a Gelth entered him.

"I think it's gone a little bit wrong." the Doctor remarked.

"Oh, you think, do you?" Autumn asked sarcastically, "I warned you!"

She knew this would happen! She knew the Gelth were bad news! But no one had listened to her and now look where they were.

"I have joined the legions of the Gelth." Sneed said, "Come. March with us."

"No!" Dickens exclaimed as the corpses advanced on the Doctor and Autumn.

"We need bodies." the Gelth remarked, "All of you. Dead. The human race. Dead."

The corpses backed the Doctor and Autumn up against a dungeon door, "Gwyneth, stop them!" the Doctor yelled, "Send them back! Now!

"Three more bodies." the Gelth commenetd, "Make them vessels for the Gelth."

"I... I can't!" Dickens stuttered, "I'm sorry!"

The Doctor pulled open a gate and both he and Autumn stepped behind it before he slammed it shut.

"It's too much for me!" Dickens exclaimed, fleeing from the room, "I'm so-"

The corpses rattled the gate, "Give yourself to the glory." the Gelth urged, "Sacrafice your lives for the Gelth."

"I trusted you." the Doctor glared, "I pitied you!"

"We don't want your pity! We want this world and all its flesh."

"Not while I'm alive." he vowed.

"Or me." Autumn agreed.

"Then live no more."

"I'm sorry." the Doctor said suddenly to Autumn.

"What?" she glanced at him.

"This is my fault." he told her, "I brought you here."

"No, I wanted to come." she shook her head, "The reason this is your fault is because you didn't listen to me." she suddenly rattled the gate, angry, "I'm not dying here in a dungeon in dungeon in Cardiff in 1869! I don't even know where Cardiff is!"

"What about me?" the Doctor asked, "I saw the fall of Troy! World War Five! I pushed boxes at the Boston Tea Party, now I'm going to die in a dungeon! In Cardiff!"

"We won't just die, though." she reminded him, "We'll become one of them." she shook her head and seemed to straighten, "If we're going down, we're going down fighting."

"Yeah." he agreed.

"Together."

"Yeah!" he linked their hands together, "I'm so glad I met you."

"Me too." she replied and they smiled at each other when Dickens suddenly ran into the room.

"Doctor!" Dickens gasped, "Turn OFF the flame, turn UP the gas! Now fill the room, all of it, now!"

"What're you doing?" the Doctor asked.

"Turn it all on!" Dickens replied, turning on another gas lamp, "Gas the place!"

"Brilliant!" the Doctor exclaimed, "Gas!"

"Genius!" Autumn nodded.

"Am I correct, Doctor? These creatures are gaseous!"

"Fill them with gas, it'll draw them out of the host." the Doctor remarked, "Suck them into the air like poison from a wound!"

"I hope..." Dickens swallowed hard as the corpses turned on him, "Oh, Lord. I hope that this theory will be validated soon." the corpses advanced on him, "If not immediately."

"Plenty more!" the Doctor exclaimed. He smashed a gas cannister against the wall and all the creatures were drawn from the corpses with a scream.

"Gwyneth!" the Doctor exclaimed as he and Autumn came to stand in front of her, "Send them back! They lied, they're not angels."

"Liars." Gwyneth said simply.

"Look at me." the Doctor said, "If your mother and father could look down and see this, they'd tell you the same. They'd give you the strengh. Now send them back!Charles, get her out." the Doctor gestured to Autumn.

Dickens grabbed Autumn's arm but she shook him off, "I'm not leaving!"

"They're too strong." Gwyneth breathed.

"Remember that world you saw?" the Doctor asked, "Autumn's world? All those people, none of it will exisist unless you send them back through the rift."

"I can't send them back." Gwyneth told them firmly, "But I can hold them. Hold them in this place, hold them here. Get out." she reached into her apron pocket and pulled out a box of matches, "Leave this place!"

The Doctor grabbed Autumn's shoulers, "Autumn, get out now, I won't leave her while she's still in danger, now go!"

"No chance!" Autumn shook her head and turned to Dickens, "Go!"

Dickens hesitated for half a second before he nodded and fled.

Autumn turned to Gwyneth, "Give those to me." she said but Gwyneth didn't respond. Autumn frowned and checked for a pulse on Gwyneth's neck before her face fell. She looked at the Doctor and shook her head solemly.

"I'm sorry." the Doctor said, placing a kiss on Gwyneth's forehead.

He grabbed Autumn's hand and they ran from the mourge. They jumped out the front door just as the building exploded behind them.

"She didn't make it." Dickens noted.

"She closed the rift." the Doctor replied.

"At such a cost." Dickens remarked, "The poor child."

"She was dead from the moment she stepped under the arch." Autumn muttered, quite sad. Gwyneth was the first friend she'd really made on her trips with the Doctor. Most of the people they met were either really annoying or evil, but Gwyneth was neither, "Even though she helped us, saved us."

"There are more things in Heaven and Earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy." Dickens remarked, "Even for you, Doctor."

"She saved the world." Autumn commented, "No one will ever know except us."

XXX

"Right then, Charlie boy," the Doctor said as the three of them stood by the TARDIS, "I've just got to go into my um... shed. Won't be long!"

"So, what are you going to do with yourself now?" Autumn asked Dickens.

"I shall take the mail coach back to London." he replied, "Quite literally post haste. This is no time for me to be on my own. I shall spend Christmas with my family and make amends to them. After all I've learned tonight there can be nothing more vital."

"You've cheered up!" the Doctor noted.

"Exceedingly!" Dickens agreed, "This morning, I thought I knew everything in the world and now I know I've just got started! All these huge and wonderful notions, Doctor! I'm inspired. I must write about them!"

"I'd definatley read them." Autumn lied. She wasn't a book person.

"I shall be subtle at first." he told them, "The Mystery of Edwin Drood still lacks and ending. Perhaps the killer was not the boy's uncle. Perhaps he was not of this Earth. The Mystery of Edwin Drood and the Blue Elementals. I can spread the word! Tell the truth!"

"Good luck with it." the Doctor shook his hand, "Nice to meet you. Fantastic."

"Bye." Autumn smiled and turned to the TARDIS with the Doctor.

"But I don't understand," Dickens frowned, "In what way is this goodbye? Where are you going?"

"You'll see." the Doctor replied, "In the shed."

"Oh, my soul, Doctor, it's one riddle after another with you." Dickens remarked, "But after all these revelations, there's still one mystery you still haven't explained. Answer me this; who are you?"

"Just a friend." he answered after a pause, "Passing through."

"But you have such knowledge of future times. I don't wish to impose on you, but I must ask you. My books. Doctor, do they last?"

"Oh, yes!" he nodded.

"For how long?"

"Forever!" he replied and Dickens smiled, pleased, "Right." he turned back to the TARDIS, "Shed. Come on, Autumn..."

"In- in the box?" Dickens asked, "Both of you?"

"Down boy." the Doctor grinned, "See ya!"

The Doctor and Autumn entered the TARDIS and walked up to the console, "Did he ever write his story?" Autumn asked as she lent against the console.

The Doctor shook his, "In a weeks time it's 1870 , and that's the year he dies." he turned the monitor on so they could see Dickens waiting outside the TARDIS for them.

"At least we made some of his last moments better." Autumn replied.

"Let's gived him one last surprise." the Doctor suggested. He revved the TARDISes engines and they watched Dickens' face as the TARDIS disappeared in front of his eyes, turning to smile at each other.


	13. Aliens of London: The Crash

_AN: Sorry there was no chapter last week, I had a cold and didn't feel better until yesterday :(_

 _Read & Review_

 _-TFA_

* * *

Aliens of London: The Crash

Autumn and the Doctor were sitting on park bench in London in 2006, sharing a bag of chips. They had just gone to the day where the first man walked on mars. After having a break in Cardiff 1869 they had gone on another trip to look for Autum's sister.

They had both suggested a few important events in Earth's history before deciding on the moon landing. But the Doctor had got the flight wrong again. Luckily they had ended up on mars on the day the first man walked on the red planet. Also quite luckily, the hadn't encountered any hostile aliens that wanted to destroy the planet, which was very unsual for them.

Autumn had just put another chip in her mouth when she heard a the sound of a very loud engine. Both her and the Doctor frowned, looking around when a large spacehsip flew past them and right into the centre of London. It smashed into big ben before landing with a splash in the Thames

Both and Autumn and the Doctor glanced at each other before they bothe grinned and ran off in the direction of the crash sight.

They came to a stop as they reached a massive traffic jam.

"It's blocked off." the Doctor commented.

"We'll never get through." Autumn remarked.

The Doctor nodded in agreement, "And we can't use the TARDIS. There's already one spaceship we don't need to put another one on top of it." he grinned suddenly, "I can't BELIEVE I'm here to see this! This is fantastic!"

"Did you know this was gonna happen?" Autumn asked, glancing at him, "Is that why you brought us here?"

He shook his head, "No."

"I didn't recognise the ship." she muttered, "Did you?"

"No." her replied shaking his head, "This is what I travel for, Autumn! To see history happening right in front of us."

She groaned, "History's happening and we're stuck here."

"Yes, we are." the Doctor agreed.

"We'll have to do what normal people do then." she remarked and he glanced at her questioningly, "We'll have to watch it on TV." she smirked, "And I know just the TV."

XXX

Rose Tyler opened the door to her flat and her eyes widened at who she saw on the other side.

"Hi!" Autumn greeted, overly cheery and nice, "We need to use your TV."

XXX

The Doctor sat on a chair in the Tyler's flat, watching the news as Autumn sat on the arm of the chair. Rose was sitting on a sofa, alternating between watching the TV and the two aliens.

"Big Ben destroyed as a UFO crash lands in Central London." a news reader announced, "Police reinforcements are drafted in from across the country to control wide spread panic, looting and civil disturbance. A state of national emergency has been declared. Tom Hitchinson is at the scene."

The screen changed to a reporter at the scene of the crash, "The police urge the public not to panic." the reporter said, "There's a help line number on screen if you're worried about friends or family."

The Doctor flicked the channel over to an American news channel.

"The military are the lookout for more spaceships." a black newsreader reported, "Until then, all flights in North American air space have been grounded."

The Doctor flicked it back to News 24.

"The army are sending drivers into the wreck of the spaceship." the reporter told them, "No one knows what they're going to find."

Before he switched it back to the American channel.

"The President will adress the nation live from the White House. But the Secretary General has asked that people watch the skies."

Rose's mother, Jackie, walked in with a cup of tea, eyeing the two aliens suspiciously before starting to chatter with her friend.

"Oi!" the Doctor called, "We're tyring to listen!"

"...his current whereabouts." the news reader finished, "News is just coming in, we can go to Tom at the embankment."

The screen switched to the reporter again.

"They've found a body." the reporter said and Autumn and Doctor both rasied their eyebrows, "It's unconfirmed but I'm being told a body has been found in the wreckage. A body of non terrestrial origins. It's being brought ashore."

Jackie walked in with a bottle of wine for the people who had gathered in the flat, "Oh, guess who asked me out, Billy Crewe."

The Doctor and Autumn shook their heads; history was happening right in front of them and they were gossiping. Didn't they realise that, after today, everything could change?

"Unconfirmed reports say that the body _is_ of extra terrestrial origin." the news reader reported, "An exstraordinary event unfolding here live in central London. The body is being transferred to a secure unit mortuary. The whereabouts is yet unknown."

The TV flicked through a few channels before landing on Blue Peter.

"And when you've stuck you things on, you can cover the whole lot..." the presenter said as the Doctor tried to wrestle the remote off of a todler, "Ooo, look at that. Then, ice it, any colour you want, here's one I made a little bit earlier, look at that. Your very own spaceship ready to eat. And there's somehing a little extra special-"

Autumn sighed, sharply snatching the remote off of the toddler and sending him a stern look so he would toddle off before she switched the channel back to the news.

"...in hospital." the news reader finished.

"We still don't know whether it's alive or dead." the reporter told them, "Whitehall is denying everything. But the body has been brought here, Albian Hospital, the roads closed off, it's the closest to the river. I'm being told that... general Asquith is now entering the hospital. The building's evacuated. The patients have been moved out onto the streets. The police still won't confirm the presence of an alien body. Contained inside those walls..."

The screen swicthed over to a reporter outside Downing Street, "Mystery still surrounds there whereabouts of the prime minister." he said, "He's not been seen since the emergency began. The opposition are criticizing his lack of leadership. Hold on..." he glanced back as a rather fat man got out of a car and entered Downing Street, "Oh, that's Joseph Green, MP for Hartley Dale. He's chairman of the parlimentary commission on the monitoring of sugar standards in exported confectionary. With respect, hardly the most important person right now."


	14. Aliens of London: Space Pig

Aliens of London: Space Pig

Later that night the Doctor and Autumn snuck out of the Tyler flat when Rose followed them out, "Where are you going?" she asked.

Autumn rolled her eyes, it seemed Rose wasn't any less annoying than she was last year. It wasn't really any of her business where they were going. Yes, that had used her TV and barged into her flat but that didn't change the fact that this had nothing to do with her.

"Nowhere!" the Doctor replied, not telling her where they were really going in case she wanted to come with them, "It's just a bit human in there for us. History just happened and they're talking about where you can buy dodgy top up cards for half price. We're off on a wander, that's all."

"Right," Rose said desbelievingly, "There's a spaceship on the Thames and you two are just 'wandering'."

"Alright," Autumn fake sighed, "You caught us. We're going to see the body from the crash, but we need you to stay here and look after the TARDIS. Can you do that?" she let out a violent cough, and cursed the fact that she couldn't like without coughing. She hoped Rose wouldn't notice.

She knew that Rose would probably insist on coming but if they gave her task to do, even if it was fake since they would be using the TARDIS, she would stay and do it because she'd feel important and needed.

"Just check on it from time to time, yeah?" Autumn continued, letting out another, smaller, cough.

"Okay, yeah." Rose nodded.

"Good." Autumn smiled, "We'll see you later." she turned around, her smile being replaced with a smirk, and walked to the TARDIS with the Doctor.

They entered the TARDIS and the Doctor grinned up at the console before running around and piloting his beloved ship.

The engines stopped and they both exited the TARDIS into a small cupboard. The Doctor pulled out his sonic and flashed it over the door before turning it off and whispering, "Shh!" to it.

He opened the door and they stepped into a room that was full of soldiers. The soldiers stared at them for a moment before they picked up their guns and aimed them at them.

Autumn shook her head at the Doctor, how did he always manage to take them to the wrong place? She was beginning to think he did it on purpose, because no one was that bad of a driver.

The Doctor grinned at the soldiers when they all sudenly heard a scream. The Doctor's expression fell and he grabbed Autumn's hand before running out of the door.

"Defence part delta!" he yelled, "Come on, move, move!"

The soldiers follwed him out of the room and they ran down the hallway. The Doctor slowed down as he spotted a female japenese medic cowering on the floor. Both he and Autumn knelt down beside her.

"It's alive!" the medic gasped.

"Spread out." the Doctor turned to the soldiers, "Tell the perimeter it's a lock down."

"My God, it's alive." the medic breathed.

Autumn rolled her eyes when she saw the soldiers just standing there, "Do it!" she yelled and they leapt into action.

"I swear it was dead." the medic remarked.

"Could've been in shock." Autumn remarked.

The Doctor nodded, "Coma, hibernation, anything." he agreed, "What does it look like?"

There was a banging from behind them and they whipped their heads round, "It's here." Autumn muttered.

The Doctor stood and beckoned a soldier into the room before he walked towards the sound quietly. There was a rattling and he dropped to his knees, crawling foward. He peered around the side of a desk and a pig peered around the other side, snorting.

"Hello!" the Doctor grinned.

The pig sqeeled in terror and ran across the room and out the door.

"Don't shoot!" Autumn yelled to the soldier as she ran out the door after the pig.

The pig ran down the corridor and came face to face with another soldier, who aimed his gun at it.

"Don't shoot!" Autumn yelled again, but it was too late. The soldier pulled the trigger and the pig fell to the ground, "Why would you do that?!" she yelled at the soldier, furious, "It was just scared!" the knelt down by the pig as the Doctor walked into the hall. She stroked the pigs snout as it died.

XXX

"I just assumed that's what aliens look like." the medic commented as she, the Doctor and Autumn examined the pig's body, "But you're saying it's an ordinary pig? From Earth?"

"It's more like a mermaid, actually." Autumn remarked, "Victorian showmnen used get the skull of a cat, glue onto a fish and call it a mermaid."

"Now, someone's taken a pig," the Doctor continued, "Opened up it's brain, stuck bits on... then they strapped it in that ship and made it dive bomb. It must've been terrified. They've taken this animal and turned it into a joke."

Autumn frowned, not beacuse she was horrified that someone coud that, although it was horrible, she knew there was evil people in the world. But she just didn't know why. What would be the point of faking an alien crash? If you wanted to invade Earth you wouldn't put the world on red alert, you'd be quiet and sneaky. No, something else was going on.

"So, it's a pretend." the medic said, not even noitcing as the Doctor and Autumn left the room and walked back into the TARDIS.

XXX

Autumn was looking at the TARDIS monnitor at Rose, Mickey and Jackie outside. She had no idea why they came back here. It wasn't like they needed any help. They were fine on their own.

She sighed and pressed a button on the console that she knew would open the doors. She looked back as Rose and Mickey walked in, followed by Jackie who was staring around the place in obvious fear.

Autumn groaned to herslef internally, she really hadn't thought letting them in through.

"So, we went and had a look," the Doctor remarked, not notcing Jackie, "But the whole crash landing's fake, I thought so, it's just too perfect. I mean, 'hitting Big Ben' come on, so I thought let's go and have a look..."

"Actually, that was what I said." Autumn cut in.

"My mum's here." Rose suddenly said.

"I'm aware." Autumn muttered while the Doctor groaned.

"Oh, that's JUST what we need." he complained.

Jackie stared around the TARDIS again before running back outside.

"Mum, don't!" Rose exclaimed before turning to the Doctor and Autumn, "Don't go anywhere!" she ran outside after her mother only to come back inside a few minutes later. She walked over to stand next to the Doctor and Autumn as Mickey came up behind them, "That was a REAL spaceship?"

"Yep!" the Doctor nodded.

"So, it's all a pack of lies?" Rose frowned, "What is it then, are they invading?"

"Funny way to invade," Mickey commented, "Putting the world on red alert."

"Good Point." Autumn remarked, she'd had that thought ealier.

"So, what are they up to?" the Doctor wondered.

XXX

Autumn knelt beside the Doctor as he fiddled with a few a wires under the TARDIS grilling, his sonic in his mouth.

"So, what're you doing down there?" Mickey asked, peering down at him.

"Ricky," the Doctor began, his voice muffled by the sonic.

Autumn rolled her eyes and took the sonic out of his mouth, "His name is Mickey." she told him.

"Ricky," the Doctor repeated and Autumn rolled her eyes again as did Mickey, "If I was to tell you what I was doing to the controls of my frankly magnificent time ship, would you even begin to understand?"

"I suppose not..." Mickey replied.

"Shut it, then"

Autumn rolled her eyes and shoved the sonic back in his mouth harder than neccisary. He sputtered and frowned at her but she just smiled down at him innocently and he rolled his eyes.

There was a short silence while the Doctor fiddled with the wires before he jumped up, "Got it!" he exclaimed, "Haha!" the four of them gathered around the monitor, "Patched in the radar, looped it back twelve hours so we can follow the flight of the spaceship, here we go... hold on..." he whacked the monitor, "Come on! That's the spaceship on it's way to Earth... see? Except... hold on... see, the spaceship did a slig shot around the Earth before it landed."

"What does that mean?" Rose asked.

"It went up then came back down." Autumn explained, "So, it came from Earth in the first place. And that means they've been here a lot longer than we thought, but we still don't know what they've been up to."

The Doctor flicked through the channels on the monnitor.

"How many channels do you get?" Mickey asked.

"All the basic packages." the Doctor replied.

"You get sports channels?" he wondered.

"Yes, I get the football." the Doctor rolled his eyes before he turned back to the screen, "Hold on, I know that lot."

"It is looking likely that the government is bringing in alien specialists." a reporter said, "Those people who have devoted their lives to studying outer space."

"UNIT!" the Doctor exclaimed, "United Nations Intelligence Task force, good people."

"How do you them?" Rose asked.

"Cos he's worked for them." Mickey answered instead, "Yeah, don't think we sat on our backsides for twelve months, Doctor. I read up on you. Me and Rose both did. You look deep enough on the internet... and in the history books, and there's his name. Flollowed by a list of the dead." he turned to look Autumn, "Didn't find anything on you, though."

"No, you wouldn't." Autumn remarked. How would humans in 2005 know about her when she hadn't even been born yet? She knew the Doctor had gone to Earth loads of times in the past and he had worked for UNIT so it was no surprise that there was information out there about him.

"That's nice." the Doctor rolled his eyes, "Good boy, Ricky."

"If you know them, why don't you go and help?" Rose asked.

"They wouldn't recognise me." he replied, "I've changed a lot since the old days. Besides, the world's on a knife edge. There's aliens out there and fake aliens. We want to keep these aliens," he gestured between himself and Autumn, "Out of the mix. I'm going undercover... and eh, better keep the TARDIS out of sight." he turned back to them, having been walking towards the doors, "Ricky! You've got a car, you can do some driving."

"Where to?" Mickey asked as they followed him to the doors.

"The roads are clearing." he replied, "Let's go and have a look at that spaceship."

They stepped out of the TARDIS to sound of helicopters and were immediatley caught in a searchlight.

"Do not move!" someone ordered.

Police cars and soldiers sourrounded them, pointing their guns at them. Mickey eyes widened and he made a run for it as Jackie ran out of the flats and tried to get to Rose but a soldier restrained her.

"No!" Jackie yelled.

"Raise your hands above your head!" a voice boomed and the three of them complied, "You are under arrest!"

"Take me to you leader!" the Doctor grinned.

Autumn shook her head at him.

* * *

 _AN: PLEASE REVIEW! I only get one per chapter and I'm desperate for more! I need reviews to live! LOL! R &R!_


	15. Aliens of London: We are the Slitheen

Aliens of London: We are the Slitheen

Rose climbed in the back of a police car next to the Doctor and Autumn, closing the door behind her, "This is a bit posh." she commented, "If I knew it was gonna be like this, being arrested, I'd have done it years ago."

"We're not being arrested." Autumn rolled her eyes.

"We're being escorted." the Doctor told her.

"Where to?" Rose wondered.

"Where do you think?" he asked, "Downing Street!" he laughed and Rose joined in, but Autumn just rolled her eyes, though she wore a fond smile.

"You're kidding." Rose remarked.

He shook his head, "I'm not!"

Rose's eyed widened, seeing he was serious, "10 Downing Street?"

He nodded, "That's the one!"

"Oh, my God!" she laughed with glee, "I'm going to 10 Downing Street?" Autumn just nodded, shrugging, not seeing what the big deal was. Sure, the Prime Minister lived their, but he was just a man, he wasn't any different from anyone else, "How come?"

"I hate to say it," the Doctor remarked, "But Mickey was right. Over the years I've visited this planet a lot of times, and I've been, uh, noticed."

"Now they need you?" Rose asked.

"Like it said on the news," he commented, "They're gathering experts in alien knowledge. And who's the biggest expert of the lot?"

"Patrick more?" Rose replied and Autumn snickered at the Doctor's offened look.

"Apart from him!"

"Ah, don't you just love it..."

"I'm telling you, Lloyd george, he used to drink me under the table." he remarked, "Who's the Prime Minister now?"

Rose frowned, "I'm not sure."

Their car came to a stop in front of Downing Street and the three of them climbed out. The Doctor grinned and waved at the cameras as Autumn rolled her eyes at him while Rose stared at Downing Street in amazement.

"Oh, my God!" she muttered before she followed the Doctor and Autumn inside.

XXX

"Ladies and Gentlemen," a dark haired man, Indra Garnesh, called as the trio waited in the lobby with all the other experts, "Could we convene? Quick as we can, please. It's this way on the right and can I remind you, ID cards are to be worn at all times." he approched the Doctor and handed him and ID card, "Here's your ID card. I'm sorry your companions don't have clearence."

The Doctor looped the ID card around his neck, "I don't go anywhere without her." he gestured to Autumn, not about to let them be sepertated when there were potentially dangerous aliens on the lose.

"You're the code nine, not her." Indra told him, "I'm sorry, Doctor... it is the Doctor, isn't it? She'll have to stay outside."

"She's staying with me." the Doctor insisted.

"Look," he sighed, "Even I don't have clearance to go in there. I can't let her in and that's a fact."

"It's fine." Autumn told the Doctor, "I'll stay out here."

"Excuse me?" a dark haired woman approached them, "Are you the Doctor?"

"Not now, we're busy," Indra sighed, "Can't you go home?"

"Are you sure?" the Doctor asked Autumn.

"I'm not a child, Doctor." she told him, "I can look after myself. Just tell me what they said afterwards."

"Okay," he nodded, following the other experts into the room.

"I just need a word in private." the dark haired woman said.

"You haven't got clearance, now leave it!" Indra exclaimed before taking Rose and Autumn's arms, but Autumn shoved him off, "I'm going to have to leave you two with security."

He began to lead them away but the dark haried woman interveened,"It's alright." she smiled, "I'll look after them. Let me be of some use." she turned to Rose and Autumn as they started to walk away, "Walk with me. Just keep walking..." they past the guards at the door, "That's right... don't look round! Harriet Jones, Mp Flydale North." she showed them her ID card.

XXX

The Doctor walked into the confrence room and took a seat at the back of the room, fliping through the booklet he found on the chair.

XXX

"This friend of yours..." Harriet began, "He's an expert, is that right? He knows about aliens?"

"Why are you asking?" Autumn asked suspicously and Harriet suddenly broke down in tears.

Rose awkwardly tried to comfort her.

XXX

"Ladies and Gentlemen," a man in a soldier's uniform, General Asquith, called, "I'd like to have your attention please. As you can see from the summaries in front of you, the ship had one porcine occupant-"

"Now, the REALLY intresting bit happened three days ago," the Doctor cut in, "See, filed away under every other business. The North Sea, the satellite detected a signal, a little blip of radiation at one hundred fathoms like there was something down there... you were just about to investigate and the next thing you know, this happens, spaceships, pigs, massive diversion, from what?"

XXX

Harriet showed Rose and Autumn a body that was made into a suit in the cabinet room, "They turned the body into a suit!" she exclaimed, "A disguise for the thing inside!" she burst into tears again.

"It's alright!" Rose told her before turning to Autumn, "Do you what aliens could have done this?"

Autumn shook her head, "No." she replied, she'd never seen anything like that before, "But they must have used some sort of technology to do this. It might be here somewhere." she opened a few draws, "If we can find it, I might be able to figure out who they are and then, we'll know how to fight them." she opened a cupboard and an middle aged man's body fell out, "Oh, my God! Who is that?"

"Harriet, for God's sake!" Indra exclaimed as he entered the room, "This had gone beyond a joke, you cannot just wander..." he suddenly spotted the body on the floor, "Oh, my God. That's the Prime Minister!"

XXX

"If aliens fake an alien crash," the Doctor continued, pacing around the room, "And a fake pilot, what do they get?" he paused as realisation dawned on his face, "Us. They get us. It's not a diversion, it's a trap."

XXX

"Oooh." a fat blonde woman, Margaret, said as she entered the cabinet room, "Has someone been naughty?"

Rose, Harriet and Indra all glanced at each other while Autumn eyed Margaret suspiciously as she shut the door.

"That's impossible." Indra remarked, "He left this aftertoon. The Prime Minister left Downing Street, he was driven away!"

"And who told you that?" the Margaret asked, walking towards them, "Hmm? Me." she moved the hair away from her forehead.

XXX

"This is all about us." the Doctor remarked, "Alien experts, the only people with knowledge how to fight them gathered together in one room." one of the speakers, the man who had entered Downing Street on the news earlier, Joseph Green, farted and the Doctor turned to him with raised eyebrows, "Excuse me, do you mind not farting while I'm saving the world?"

"Would you rather silent but deadly?" he asked.

Joseph and the General snickered as the Doctor stared at them. General Asquith took of his hat and undid the zip on his forehead while Joseph laughed manically. Asquith pulled down his skin to reavel the creature underneath.

XXX

Margaret began taking her skin suit off of her, revealing part of the green alien underneath

XXX

Joseph continued cackling as Asquith finished taking off the skin suit.

XXX

The creature benneath Margaret stood in front of the quartet and growled.

XXX

"We are the Slitheen." Asquith told them, now completly out of his skin suit.

The alien benneath was much taller than the average human and was a mucas green colour. It had big bolbous eyes and a metal coller around it's neck.

XXX

The Slitheen grabbed Indra and pinned him against the wall, strangling him as he screamed.

XXX

"Thank you all for wearing you ID cards." Joseph grinned and pulled a black device out of his pocket, "They'll help to identify the bodies."

He pressed a button on the device and electricty flowed through all of the expert's ID cards.

The Doctor fell to his knees in pain.

XXX

Harriet, Autumn and Rose watched as the Slitheen strangled Indra.

XXX

The Doctor shouted in pain as Joseph watched with a savage pleasure and Asquith laughed.

TO BE CONTINUED...

* * *

 _AN: So, first thanks for the reviews last week, I got quite a few more than usual which was amazing. Second, I've decided to start replying to reviews, so..._

 _Replies to Reviews..._

 _AxidentlGoddess: Thanks for reviewing! Rose isn't my favourite companion either and to be honest I only put her in this story because I couldn't think of another way for this episode to end, since Mickey blew up downing street and they only knew Mickey because of Rose. We'll have to wait and see if Rose will travel with them after this episode. Thanks again for reviewing!_

 _ThisIsMeAndYou: Thank you! I'm really glad you like this story, sometimes I think no one likes it! I'm not sure about pairing Autumn's sister with Jack, but I love the idea of her joining Torchwood! But, we'll have to wait to see if she's still alive first, she could be dead when they find her or they could not find her at all :( Thanks for reviewing!_

 _NicoleR85: Thank you, I'm glad you liked the chapter! Thanks for reviewing every week, I really appreciate it!_

 _EPICphantom104: Thank you! I'm glad you love Autumn, I always think that my characters are rubbish. And I agree with you about Rose being the tin dog, although I much prefer Mickey and K9 to Rose! Thanks for reviewing!_

 _GhostlySights: Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter!_

 ** _PLEASE REVIEW!_** _They make my day!_


	16. World War Three: The Chase

World War Three: The Chase

The Doctor rose to his feet and staggard towards the slitheen, "Deadly to humans, maybe." he remarked, ripping the ID card off his neck and shoving it Asquith's coller.

The Slitheen wailed as electricity covered his and the rest of the Slitheen's bodies.

XXX

Margaret dropped Indra's body as she was covered in electricity.

XXX

The Doctor dashed to the door.

XXX

Autumn hurried out of the room with Rose and Harriet behind her.

XXX

The Doctor ran into the reception where all the security guards were gathered, "Oi!" he called, "You want aliens, you've got them. They're inside Downing Street." he clapped his hands, "Come on!"

XXX

Autumn, Rose and Harriet ran down a corridor when Harriet suddenly stopped, "No, wait!" she exclaimed, "They're still in there! The emergancy protocols! We need them!"

She ran back the way they came and Rose followed after her but Autumn stayed where she was, "It doesn't matter!" she yelled, but they didn't stop. She sighed, about to go after them when they came running back towards her, Magaret on their tail.

The three of them ran across a hallway and Rose closed the door behind them but Margaret just smashed through it.

XXX

The Doctor lead the security into the conference room where Josheph and Asquith stood, seemingly human.

"Where have been?" Joseph asked as the guards started to check the experts' dead bodies, "I called for help, I sounded the alarm. There was this... lightning! This kind of er... um... electricity, and they all collapsed!"

"I think their all dead." a guard remarked.

"That's what saying." Joseph replied, "He did it!" he pointed at the Doctor, "That man there!"

"I think you will find the Prime Minister is an alien in disguise." the Doctor told them before glacing at the guard next to him, "That's never going to work, is it?"

"No." the guard shook his head.

"Fair enough." the Doctor nodded.

He fled from the room and the guards chased him. He backed up against an elevator as he found himself surrounded. He put his hands up and grinned.

"Under the jurisdiction of the Emergancy Protocols, I authorise you to execute this man!" Asquith ordered and the guards readied their guns.

"Uh, well, now, yes." the Doctor began, "You see, eh... the thing is... if I was you, if I was going to execute someone by backing them against the wall, between you and me, little word of advice..." the elevator opened behind him, "Don't stand the against the lift!" he grinned and backed into the lift, closing the doors with his sonic.

XXX

Autumn, Harriet and Rose ran to the end of a hall and reached a locked door. They glanced back at Maragaret when the lift opened, the Doctor standing inside it.

"Hello!" he grinned at Margaret and she roared at him.

The lift doors closed again and the trio used the distraction to slip away. They entered another room where all the doors where locked.

"Find somewhere to hide!" Autumn ordered, running to hide behind a curtain as Rose hid behind a cabinet and Harriet hid behind a wooden screen.

XXX

The Doctor stepped out of the lift.

XXX

"Oh, such fun!" Margaret remarked as she entered the room where Autumn, Rose and Harriet were hiding, "Little human children...where are you? Sweet little humeykins... come to me... let me kiss you better..." Rose bolted from her hiding place to hide behind the other curtain, "...kiss you with my big, green lips."

XXX

The Doctor ran down a flight of stairs only to hastily hide in a crevice next to a door when he heard Asquith and Joseph.

"We'll keep this floor quarentined as our last hunting ground befire the final phase." Joseph remarked as they walked past the Doctor, both him and Asquith in their natural alien form.

XXX

"My brothers." Margaret greeted as Joseph and Asquith entered the room

"Happy hunting?" Joseph wondered.

"It's wonderful." Margaret replied, "The more you prolong it, the more they stink.

"Sweat... and fear." Asquith remarked.

"I can smell an old girl..." Joseph commented, "Stale bird... brittle bones."

"And two ripe youngsters." Margaret added, "All hormones and adrenaline. Fresh enough to bend before they snap." she swept the curtain aside to reveal Rose, who screamed.

"No!" Harriet yelled as she stepped out from her hiding place, "Take me first! Take me!"

The Doctor suddenly crashed into the room and blasted the Slitheen with a fire exstinguisher, "Out! With me!"

Autumn reached up and pulled the curtains down over margarets head before she ran to the Doctor's side with Rose and Harriet.

"Who the hell are you?" the Doctor asked Harriet.

"Harriet Jones, MP for Flydale North." she replied.

He nodded, "Nice to meet you."

"Likewise."

"Can we stop with the pleasentries and run, please?!" Autumn rolled her eyes, leave it to the Doctor to waste time when they didn't have any.

The Doctor blasted the Slitheen one last time before the four of them made a run for it.

"We need to get to the cabinet room!" the Doctor told them as they ran down the hall.

"The Emergancy Protocols are in there!" Harriet replied, "They give instructions on aliens!"

"Harriet Jones, I like you." the Doctor remarked.

"And I like you to."

The Doctor unlocked a door with his sonic and they ran through the halls with the Slitheen chasing them until they reached the Cabinet room.

The Doctor quickly grabbed a bottle of some sort of alcohol and held his sonic against it threatningly, "One more move and my sonic device will triplicate the flammability of this alchohol." he threatened, "Whoof! We all go up. So back off." the Slitheen hesitated and he continued, "Right then. Question time. Who exactly are the Slitheen?"

Autumn mentally rolled her eyes, it was obvious that the Doctor's threat made no sense whatsoever. It was psysically impossible, and even if it wasn't the Doctor would never actually do it, but the Slitheen didn't even think about that, they didn't even think it through, just saw the threat and reacted.

Oh well. Their stupidity was her luck.

"They're aliens." Harriet supplied unhelpfully.

Autumn rolled her eyes, "Obviously."

"Who are you, if not human?" Joseph asked.

Harriet frowned, "Who's not human?"

"They're not human." Rose replied, gesturing between the Doctor and Autumn.

Harriet's eyes widened, "They're not human?"

"Could you shut up?" Autumn asked.

"Sorry." Harriet whispered.

"So," the Doctor turned his attention back to the Slitheen, "What's the plan?"

"But he's got a Northen accent and she's got an American one." Harriet whispered to Rose.

"Lots of planets have North." Rose replied, repeating what the aliens had once said when she had asked the same questions, "And she actually is from America, just really far in the future."

"She said hush!" the Doctor exclaimed, "Come on!" he held the alcohol out threateningly in front of him, "You've got a spaceship hidden in the North Sea. It's transmitting a signal. You've murdered your way to the top of the government, what for? Invasion?"

"Why would we invade this God forsaken rock?" Asquith wondered.

"Then something's brough the Slitheen race here," the Doctor remarked, "What is it?"

"The Slitheen race?" Asquith scoffed.

"Slitheen is not our species." Joseph told them, "Slitheen is our surname. Jocrassa Fel Fotch Pasameer Day Slitheen at your service."

"So, you're a family." the Doctor commented.

"It's a family business." Joseph said.

"Then you're out to make a profit." the Doctor reasoned, "How can you do that on a 'God forsaken rock'?"

"Ahh..." Asquith frowned, "Excuse me? Your device will do what? Triplicate the flammability...?"

"Is that what I said?" the Doctor asked.

"You're making it up!" Asquith accused.

"Ah, well!" he shrugged, "Nice try. Autumn, have a drink. I think you're gonna need it." he offered her the bottle.

"I don't drink alcohol." she reminded him, "Since it would kill me."

Ayries were severly allergic to alchohol. If they drunk even a drop it could kill them. It was the one thing that could be used against them. It was their kryptnonite.

"Sorry." he nodded, he'd forgotten for a moment, before he offered it to Rose.

She took it, "Thanks."

"Now we can end this hunt..." Asquith remarked, "With a slaughter."

"Don't you think we should run?" Rose asked.

"Fascinating history, Downing Street." the Doctor commented, "Two thousand years ago, this was marsh land. 1730, it was occupied by a Mr. Chicken. He was a nice man. 1796, this was the cabinet room, if the cabinet's in session and in danger, these are about the four most safest walls in the whole of Great Britain." he pressed and switch by the door and steel shutters slammed down over every door and window, "End of lesson." he turned to the girls, "Installed in 1991. Three inches of steel lining every single wall. They'll never get in."

"And we'll never get out." Autumn remarked, knowing he probably wouldn't have thought of that.

The Doctor paused, "Ah."

* * *

 _AN: Merry Christmas! Reviews would be appreciated, think of it as a Christmas present._

 _Replies to reviews..._

 _NicoleR85: Thanks! I think that if Rose travelled with the now and was catty towards Autumn, the Doctor wouldn't stand for it since he hardly knows Rose but has been travelling with Autumn for a while. Merry Christmas!_

 _Guest: I don't think I could pair Autumn's sister with Owen since I'm an Owen/Tosh shipper, but I like that idea better than pairing her with Jack, so you never know! Merry Christmas!_

 _Guest: I don't feel Autumn was a bitch to Rose as she barely said two words to her that wasn't pertaining to the episode plot, but if she feel she was than that's you opinion. Merry Christmas!_

 **PLEASE REVIEW! I need more! PLEASE!**


	17. World War Three: Hanibal

World War Three: Hanibal

The Doctor dragged Indra's body into a cupboard, "What was his name?" he asked Harriet.

"Which one?" Harriet wondered.

"This one," he replied, "The secretary or whaterver he was called."

"I don't know." she replied, "I talked to him. I brought him a cup of coffee. I never asked his name."

"Sorry." the Doctor whispered to the body before he strode back into the room, "Right, what have we got? Any terminals? Anything?"

"No." Rose replied, "The place is antique. What I don't get, is when they killed the Prime Minister, why didn't they use him as a disguise?"

"He's too thin." Autumn told her, "All the people they used would have to be fat or they wouldn't be able to fit."

"But the Slitheen are about 8 feet," Rose frowned, "How do they squeeze inside?"

"They were wearing a compression field." Autumn replied, "It shrinks them down."

"Wish I had a compression field, I could fit a size smaller." Rose remarked and Autumn rolled her eyes.

Evey time she managed to slightly like Rose she said something like that. Something that showed how truly childish and ignorant she was.

"Excuse me," Harriet frowned, "People are dead, this is not the time for making jokes."

"Sorry..." Rose muttered.

"Harriet Jones, I've heard that name before," the Doctor remarked as he scanned the walls with his sonic, "Harriet Jones. You're not famous for anything, are you?"

"Huh!" Harriet scoffed, "Hardly."

"Rings a bell," he mutterd, "Harriet Jones."

"Lifelong backbencher I'm afraid," Harriet commented, "And a fat lot of use I'm being now, the protocols are redundant, they list the people who can help and they're all dead downstairs."

"Hasn't it got like, defence codes and things?" Rose asked, "Can we just launch a nuclear bomb at 'em?"

"You're a very violet young woman..." Harriet remarked.

"I'm serious!" Rose exclaimed, "We could!"

"If we launched a bomb at them we'd also be launching one at ourselves." Autumn pointed out, "And all the inncocent people in the building."

"Well, there's nothing like that in here, anyway." Harriet remarked, "Nuclear strikes do need a release code, yes, but it's kept secret by the United Nations."

"Say that again." the Doctor turned to them.

"What, about the codes?" Harriet asked.

"Anything." the Doctor replied, "All of it."

"Um, well... the British Isles can't gain access to atmomic weapons without a special resolution from the UN."

Rose snorted, "Like that's ever stopped them."

"Exactly," Harriet agreed, "Given our past record, and I voted against that, thank you very much. The codes have been taken out of the governments hands and given to the UN. Is it Important?"

"Everythings Important." the Doctor replied.

"If we only knew what the Slitheen wanted." Harriet remarked, "Listen to me, I'm saying 'Slitheen' as if it's normal."

"It's normal for us." Autumn muttered.

"What do they want, though?" Rose asked.

"Well, they don't want to invade." Autumn told her, hopping to sit on the edge of the table, "They want to make money. So, they're probably looking for something they could sell, something that Earth has in large quantities."

"Like what?" Harriet asked, "Gold? Oil? Water?"

"You're both very good at this." the Doctor remarked.

"I know." Autumn nodded.

"Thank you." Harriet smiled.

"Harriet Jones," the Doctor frowned, "Why do I know that name?"

"Never mind that." Autumn waved him off, hopping off the table, "We need to make contact with someone on the outside." she dug through her pockets for her phone but she couldn't find it, "I left my phone in the TARDIS." she told them, turning to Rose, "Can I borrow your phone?"

"Sure." Rose replied, handing it to her.

She chucked it to the Doctor, "Universal roaming."

He nodded and flashed his sonic over it before chucking it back at Rose, "There you go; it can call anyone from anywhere in the Universe now."

"Then we can phone for help!" Harriet exclaimed, turning to the Doctor, "You must have contacts."

He nodded, "Dead downstairs, yeah."

Rose's phone beeped and she looked down at it, "It's Mickey."

The Doctor rolled his eyes, "Oh, tell your stupid boyfriend we're busy."

"Yeah, he's not so stupid after all." Rose told him, showing him the picture of a Slitheen being electricuted Mickey had sent her.

XXX

"Is she alright, though?" Rose asked Mickey over the phone, having heard that her mother had been attacked by a Slitheen, "Don't put her on, just tell me."

The Doctor snached the phone off of her, "Is that Rickey?" he asked, "Don't talk, just shut up and go to your computer."

" _It's Mickey."_ he corrected, " _And why should I?"_

Autumn snached the phone off of the Doctor, "Because we need you to help us save the world."

XXX

" _It says password."_ Mickey said over the phone as the Doctor plugged it into a speaker on the table.

"Say again." the Doctor said.

" _It's asking for the password."_ Mickey repeated.

"Buffalo," the Doctor replied, "Two F's one L."

" _So, what's that website?_ " they heard Jackie ask in the background.

" _All the secret information know to mankind._ " Mickey replied, " _See, they've know about aliens for years, they just kept us in the dark."_

"Mickey, you were born in the dark." the Doctor remarked.

"Oh, leave him alone." Rose complained.

 _"Thank you._ " Mickey said, _"Password again."_

"Just repeat it, every time." the Doctor told him before he frowned, "Big Ben, why did the Slitheen hit Big Ben?"

"You said to gather the experts," Harriet pointed out, "To kill them."

"They didn't need to do anything that big, though." Autumn shook her head, "That lot would have gathered for anything."

"The Slitheen were hiding," Rose frowned, trying to help, "And then they put the entire planet and red alert, what would they do that for?"

 _"Oh. listen to her."_ Jackie commented over the phone.

"At least I'm trying!" Rose exclaimed.

 _"Well, I've got a question if you don't mind_." Jackie remarked, " _Because since those two walked into our lives, I have been attacked on the streets and had creatures from the pits of hell in my own living room. I've seen this life of yours, Doctor. And maybe you get off on it. And maybe you think it's all clever and smart, but you tell me. Just answer this, is my daughter safe?"_

"I'm fine." Rose sighed.

" _Is she safe?"_ Jackie asked again.

"No, she isn't." Autumn answered after a pause, "And that's not our fault. These aliens would have come to Earth anyway and if we weren't here no one would be able to stop them, so don't start blaming us."

" _We're in."_ Mickey said, breaking the silence that had followed.

"Right then," the Doctor leapt into action, "On the left, there's a tab, an icon, little concentric circles, click on that."

 _"What is it?"_ Mickey asked.

"The Slitheen have got a spacehship in the North Sea and it's transmitting that signal," the Doctor replied, "Now hush, let me work out what it's saying." he frowned, "It's some sort of message."

"What's it say?" Rose asked.

"Don't know," he replied, "It's on a loop, keeps repeating." the heard Mickey's doorbell ring over the phone, "Hush!"

" _That's not me."_ Micket told them, " _Go and see who that is."_

 _"It's three o'clock in the morining."_ Jackie hissed.

 _"Well, go and tell them that."_ Mickey replied.

"It's beaming out into space," the Doctor frowned, "Who's it for?"

 _"It's him!"_ they heard Jackie scream, " _It's the thing, it's the Slickeen!"_

 _"They've found us."_ Mickey told them.

"Mickey, I need that signal." the Doctor insisted.

"Never mind the signal," Rose said, "Mum just get out! Get out! Get out!"

 _"We can't,"_ Mickey replied, " _It's by the front door."_ he gasped suddenly, " _Oh, my God! It's unmasking! It's gonna kill us."_

"There's got to be some way of stopping them!" Harriet exclaimed, turining to the Doctor, "You're supposed to the expert, think of something!"

"I'm trying!" he replied.

"That's my mother." Rose said and Autumn looked up at her.

If that was her mother, she'd do anything to save her. And she could do the same for Rose's mother. She knew what it felt to lose her mother and she wouldn't wish that on her worst enmey never mind Rose, "She's right." she spun around to face the Doctor, "We need to do something, we need to find their weakness so we need to know where there from." she spun back to face Rose and Harriet, "Tell us everything you know about them!"

"They're green." Rose supplied.

Autumn rolled her eyes, about to say that that was obvious but the Doctor just nodded, "Yep, narrows it down."

"Uh, good sense of smell." Rose said.

"Narrows it down." the Doctor replied.

"They can smell addrenaline." she added.

"The compression technology." Harriet suggested.

Autumn nodded, "Narrows it down." she told them, going through all the spiecies in her head.

"The spaceship in the Thames," Rose began, frowning, "You said slipstream engine?"

The Doctor nodded, "Narrows it down."

" _It's getting in!"_ Mickey yelled.

"Oh!" Rose gasped, "They hunt like it's a ritual."

"Narrows it down."

"Wait a minute!" Harriet exclaimed, "Did you notice, when they fart, if you'll pardon the word, it doesn't just smell like a fart, if you'll pardon the word, it's something else, what is it, it's more like uh... um..."

"Bad breath!" Rose realised.

"That's it!" Harriet agreed.

"Calcium decay!" Autumn exclaimed.

The Doctor nodded, "Now that narrows it down!"

"We're getting there, mum!" Rose remarked.

 _"Too late!"_ Mickey replied.

Autumn and the Doctor turned to face each other, "Calcium phosphate," the Doctor began, "Organic calcium, liv-"

"Living calcium," Autumn cut in, finishing his sentence before they began muttering together in unison, "Creatures made out of living calcium, what else, what else, hyphenated sodium, yes! That narrows it down to one planet! Raxacoricofallapatorius!" the both grinned at each other and quickly high fived.

They both turned to grin at Harriet and Rose but they were just staring at them oddly, "What?" Autumn asked.

"How did you do that?" Rose asked.

"Do what?" the Doctor wondered.

"Talk at exactly the same time." Rose clarified

"Oh." they said together, glancing at each other before turning back to them, "We can speak telipathically." Autumn told them, "So we pretty much know what the other's gonna say." they just continued staring at her, "Anyway!" she said loudly, "Mickey and Jackie!"

"Right!" Rose nodded, turning back to the phone.

"Get into the kitchen!" the Doctor ordered them.

" _My God,"_ Jackie gasped, " _It's going to rip us apart!"_

"Calcium, recombined with a compression field," the Doctor remarked, "Ascetic acid. Vinegar!"

"Just like Hannibal!" Harriet exclaimed.

"Just like Hannibal." the Doctor agreed, "Mickey, have you got any vinegar?"

" _How should I know?"_ Mickey asked.

"It's your kitchen." the Doctor pointed out.

"Cupboard by the sink," Rose said, "Middle shelf."

 _"Give it here,"_ they heard Jackie snach the phone off of Mickey, " _What do you need?"_

"Anything with vinegar!" the Doctor replied.

" _Gherkins!"_ Jackie exclaimed, " _Yeah! Pickled onions! Pickled eggs!"_

"You kiss this man?" the Doctor asked Rose incredulously.

Over the phone the hear the sound of the door being broke down before they heard a bang and a splattering as the Slitheen exploded and they all breathed a sigh of releif.

There was a pause before Rose turned to Harriet, "Hannibal?"

"Hannibal crossed the Alps by dissolving boulders with vinegar." Harriet told her.

"Oh." Rose nodded, "Well, there you go then." the Doctor, Rose and Harriet raised their glasses of alchohol that they had prepared during the comotion, Autumn rasing her empty glass since she couldn't have any, and drank, "Phew!"


	18. World War Three: Lies

World War Three: Lies

" _Listen to this."_ Mickey said over the phone before they heard Joseph speaking on the TV.

" _Our inspectors have searched the sky above our heads and they have found massive weapons of destruction,"_ Joseph lied, " _Capable of being deployed within 45 seconds_."

"What?" the Doctor frowned.

" _Our technicians can baffle the alien probes_." Joseph continued, " _But not for long. We are facing extinction. Unless we strike first. The United Kingdom stands directly beneath the belly of the mother ship. I beg the United Nations, pass and emergancy resolution. Give us the access codes! A nuclear strike at the heart of the ship is our only chance of survival. Because... from this moment on... it is my solemn duty to inform you... planet Earth is at war_."

"He's lying." Autumn shook her head, "Everything he said he made up, there's no threat."

"Do you think they'll believe him?" Harriet asked.

"They did last time." Rose pointed out.

"That's why the Slitheen went for spectale." the Doctor remarked, "They want the whole world panicing, because you lot, you get scared, you lash out."

"They release the defence codes..." Rose realised.

"And the Slitheen go nuclear." Autumn finished.

"By why?" Harriet wondered.

The Doctor strode over to the door and opened the shutters where Margaret, now dressed as a human, and two other Slitheen were standing, "You get the codes," the Doctor began, "Release the missiles. But not into space because there's nothing there. You attack every other country on Earth, they retaliate, fight back. World War Three, the whole planet gets nuked."

"And we can sit through it in our spaceship waiting in the Thames." Margaret smirked, "Not crashed. Just parked. They'll be two minutes away."

"But you'll destroy the planet," Harriet frowned, "This beautiful place. What for?"

"Profit." the Doctor answered, "That's what the signal is beaming into space, an advert."

"Sale of the century." Margaret remarked, "We reduce the Earth to molten slag, then sell it. Piece by piece. Radioactive chunks capable of powering every cut price star liner and buget cargo ship. There's a recession out there, Doctor. People are buying cheap. This rock becomes raw fuel."

"At the cost of five billion lives." the Doctor pointed out.

Margaret shrugged, "Bargain."

"Then I give you the choice," he said, "Leave this planet or I'll stop you."

"What?" Margaret laughed, "You? Trapped in your box?"

"Yes." he nodded darkly, "Me." he shut the shutters as Margaret's amusment faded.

XXX

 _"Alright, Doctor._ " Jackie said over the phone, _"I'm not saying I trust you, but there must be something you can do."_

"If we ferment the porch, we could make ascetic acid." Harriet suggested.

"Mickey, any luck?" Rose called.

" _There's loads of emergency numbers, they're all on voicemail."_ Mickey replied.

Autumn watched the Doctor curiously as he lent against the wall, deep in thought.

"Voicemail dooms us all." Harriet remarked.

"If we could just get out of here..." Rose muttered.

"There's a way out." the Doctor spoke up suddenly.

"What?" Rose frowned at him.

"There's always been a way out." he told them.

"Then why don't we use it?" Rose asked.

Autumn frowned, if he had a way out, he would have used it, unless..."He thinks it will kill us." she remarked.

That was the only reason he would hesitate to use the way out and save the world; killing innocent people. He'd be hesitant to use it even if they weren't innocent, he just hated killing.

" _Don't you dare._ " Jackie said through the phone, " _Whatever it is, don't you dare."_

"The thing is," he began, "If I don't dare, everyone dies."

"Just do it." Autumn told him.

He looked up at her, "You don't even know what it is," he remarked, staring at her in desbelief, "You'd just let me?"

Autumn swallowed hard. She knew why he was staring at her. He knew that she had a hard time trusting people, it usually took a long time, but somehow he had got under her skin and she trusted him. She did, she trusted him with her life, "Yes."

" _Please, Doctor."_ Jackie cried, desperate to save Rose, " _Please! She's my daughter, she's just a kid!"_

"Do you think I don't know that?" he asked, "Because this is my life, Jackie, it's not fun, it's not smart, it's just standing up and making a decision because nobody else will."

"Then what the hell are you waiting for?" Autumn asked.

He looked up at her softly, "I could save the world but lose you."

Autumn stared at him a moment, feeling like she was going to explode, or turn to liquid or _something_! Something had to be making her feel this... this... whatever it was! She swallowed hard and shook her head, "You'll lose me either way." she told him, "Because, if you let them destroy the Earth, I'll never forgive you."

They stared at each other across the table again, deep emotions warring inside both of them when Harriet suddenly spoke up, "Except it's not your decision, Doctor." she said, "Or yours, Autumn. It's mine."

 _"And who the hell are you?_ " Jackie demanded angrily.

"Harriet Jones," she replied, "MP for Flydale North. The only elected representative in this room, chosen by the people, for the people, and on behalf of the people I command you. Do it."

The Doctor looked over at Autum and she smiled and nodded making him grin.

XXX

"How do we get out?" Rose asked as the Doctor opened the Emergancy Protocols.

"We don't." he replied, "We stay here." he shuffled through the Emergancy Protocols and adressed Mickey, "Use the buffalo password, it overides everything."

 _"What're you doing?"_ they heard Jackie ask Mickey.

" _Hacking into the Royal Navy."_ he breathed, " _We're in. Here it is, uh.. H.M.S. Taurean, Trafalgar Class Submarine, 10 miles of the coach of Plymouth."_

"Right, we need to select a missle." the Doctor told him.

" _We can't go nuclear,"_ Mickey reminded him, " _We don't have the defence codes."_

"We don't need it," the Doctor replied, "All we need is an ordinary missile. What's the first category?"

" _Sub Haffoon, UGMA4A."_ Mickey answered.

"That's the one." the Doctor told him, "Select."

 _"I could stop you."_ they heard Jackie remark.

 _"Do it, then."_ Mickey replied.

"Ready for this?" the Doctor asked.

" _Yeah."_ Mickey replied after a pause.

"Mickey the idiot." the Doctor remarked, "The world is in your hands. Fire."

" _Oh, my God."_ Jackie gasped.

"How solid are these?" Harriet asked.

"Not solid enough for this." Autumn told her, "They won't be able to protect us."

"Alright." Rose suddenly spoke up, "Now I'm making the decsion. I'm not gonna die, we're gonna ride this one out." she ran over to the cupboard and opened it, "It's like what they say about earthquakes, you can survive 'em by standing under a doorframe. Now this cupboard's small so it's strong." Autumn stared at Rose, midly impressed, though it probably wouldn't last for long; it never did, "Come and help me! Come on!"

Autumn and Harriet rushed to help her.

" _It's on the radar."_ Mickey told them, " _Counter defence 556."_

"Stop them intercepting it." the Doctor ordered.

 _"I'm doing it now."_ Mickey replied.

"Good boy." the Doctor remarked.

" _556 neautrilised."_

The Doctor ripped the phone out of the speaker and ran into the cupboard. The four of them crouched down in a corner and the Doctor grabbed Autumn's hand.

"Nice know you." Harriet remarked, "Hannibal!"

The cupbaord shook violently.

XXX

The Doctor, Autumn, Rose and Harriet emerged from the wreckage and looked around, "Made in Britain." Harriet remaked.

A guared rushed over to them,"Are you alright?"

"Harriet Jones." Harriet flashed her ID, "Mp, Flydale North. I want you to contact the UN immediately, tell the ambassadors the crisis is over and they can step down. Go on, tell the news!"

The guard nodded, "Yes, ma'am." he rushed off.

"Someone's got a hell of a job sorting this lot out." Harriet remarked, "Oh, Lord! We haven't even got a Prime Minister!"

"Well, maybe you sould have a go." the Doctor suggested.

"Me?" Harriet laughed, "I'm only a back bencher."

"I'd vote for ya!" Rose told her.

"Me too." Autumn added, "If I wasn't American. Or from the future. Or an alien."

"Now, don't be silly." Harriet waved them off, "Look, I'd better go and see if I can help." she climbed over the rubbled and walked over to a crowd of people as they watched, "Hand on! The Earth is safe! Sergeant!"

The Doctor, Autumn and Rose stepped out of the rubble together, "I thought I knew that name." the Doctor remarked, "Harriet Jones, future Prime Minister. Elected for three successive terms, the architect of Britain's Golden Age."

XXX

The Doctor and Autumn entered the TARDIS, grinning, both very pleased to be home.

XXX

The Doctor exited the TARDIS that night and peered down at the little boy who was cleaning the graffiti he'd written on the TARDIS, "Good lad. Graffiti that again and I'll 'ave ya. Now, beat it."

The boy scurried off and the Doctor turned to Mickey who was sitting on a bin, "I just went down the shop." Mickey told him, "And I was thinking, you know, like the whole world's changed. Aliens and spaceships all in public. And here it is." he held up a news paper with the headline 'Alien Hoax?', "How could they do that? They saw it!"

"They're just not ready." the Doctor remarked, "You're happy to believe in something that's invisable, but if it's staring you in the face, nope! Can't see it! There's a scientific explanation for that. You're thick."

Mickey laughed, "We're just idiots."

"Well, not all of you." he admitted.

"Yeah?" Mickey raised an eyebrow, surprised.

"Present for you, Mickey." he handed him a disc, "That's a virus. Put it online, it'll destroy every mention of me. I'll cease to exist."

"What do you want to do that for?" Mickey asked.

"Cos you were right." he replied, "I am dangerous. I don't want anybody following me."

"How can you say that, and then take her with you?" Mickey gestured to Autumn who was stepping out of the TARDIS behind them.

"She can take care of herself." the Doctor told him.

"Are we going, then?" Autumn asked as she approached them.

"Yeah." the Doctor nodded.

They turned to walk towards the TARDIS, "Bye, Mickey." Autumn waved at him over her shoulder as the Doctor stepped into the TARDIS, her following him.

"Bye." Mickey muttered as he watched the TARDIS dissappear.

* * *

 _AN: I forgot to reply to the reviews last week, so I'll reply to them now._

 _Replies to reviews..._

 _AxidentlGoddess: Yeah, I agree, I don't think Rose would be catty to Autumn since she hasn't got any feelings for the Doctor in this story, but I guess we won't find out now as she didn't end up going with them. Thanks for reviewing!_

 _Ronin Kenshin: Thanks! I'm glad you love Autumn!_

 _Aka-Baka Hoshi: Thanks! I agree, the smallest thing can change things. I'm glad you love Autumn! Thanks for reviewing!_

 _NicoleR85: Thanks! I think Jackie blamed the Doctor for things that weren't his fault and the Doctor doesn't defend himself because he feels to guilty about things, but Autumn just couldn't let her blame them when they were the ones who were going to save the day. Thanks for reviewing!_

 ** _PLEASE REVIEW! I LIVE FOR REVIEWS! REVIEW! (I'm a bit desperate)_**


	19. Dalek: The Museum

Dalek: The Museum

The TARDIS materialised in a darkened room and the Doctor and Autumn stepped out, "What's wrong with the TARDIS?" Autumn asked, "Why would it bring us here?"

It had been a few weeks since the Slitheen incident and they had quite a few adventures since then, both where they had been looking for her sister and where they hadn't. They had just come from the day where Everest had first been climbed. Fortunatley, the Doctor hadn't taken them to the wrong destination but, unfortunatley they had run into a few hostile aliens.

"Don't know," the Doctor replied, "Some kind of signal drawing the TARDIS off course..."

"Where and when are we, then?" she wondered.

"Earth," he answered, "Utah, North America. About half a mile underground. And it's the year 2012." he flicked a light switch on and the room was illuminated. There were rows of glass cases with objects inside them like a museum exhibit room.

"It's a museum." Autumn remarked.

"An alien museum." the Doctor commented as they walked between the rows of exhibits, "Somone's got a hobby. They must've spent a fortune on this. Chunks of meteorite, moon dust... that's the milometer from the Roswell Spaceship."

"Bit of Slitheen." Autumn remarked as they passed a stuffed Slitheen's arm stood up in a glass case.

"Ah!" the Doctor exclaimed as he caught sight of a retro robotic head, "Look at you!"

"Head of a Cyberman." Autumn muttered, "Have you met them?"

"Old friend of mine..." he replied, "Well, enemy. The stuff of nightmares reduced to an exhibit. I'm getting old."

"So, where's the signal coming from?" Autumn wondered.

"No idea." he replied, "But it's nothing here. These are all stone dead. The signal's alive. Something's reaching out. Calling for help." he tapped the glass of an exhibit gently and alarms suddenly began to blare. A group of guards ran into the room and aimed their guns at them.

They put their hands up and the Doctor grinned.

XXX

The Doctor and Autumn were lead into an office where a balding man with a coatee, Henry Van Statten, was sat at a desk being shown an artefact by a young man called Adam.

"What does it do?" Van Statten asked Adam.

"Well, you see," Adam replied, "The tubes on the side must be to channel something, I think maybe fuel..."

"I really wouldn't hold it like that." the Doctor remarked.

"Shut it." a tall ginger woman, Goddard, snapped.

"Really, though," he ignored her, "That's wrong."

"Is it dangerous?" Adam asked.

Autumn shook her head, "He just looks stupid."

The Doctor reached foward for the artefact and the guards readied their guns, making him pause. Van Statten gestured for them to stand down and passed the Doctor the artefact, "You just need to be.." the Doctor began, running his fingers over the artifact and making it play a few notes, "...delicate."

"It's a musical instrument." Van Statten realised.

Autumn rolled her eyes, "Obviously."

"And it's a long way from home." the Doctor added.

Van Statten stood, "Here, let me." he snatched it off the Doctor, who raised his eyebrows.

"I did say 'delicate'." he remarked, "Reacts to the smallest fingerprint." Van Satten tried to play it but only manged to get it make a few beebing noises, "It needs precision." Van Statten touched it more gently and managed to make it play a few notes, "Very good. Quite the expert."

"As are you." Van Statten commented. He tossed the artefact aside, "Who exactly are you?"

"I'm the Doctor." he replied, "And who are you?"

"Like you don't know." Van Statten scoffed, "We're hidden away with the most valuable collection of extra terrestrial artefacts in the world and you just stumbled in by mistake."

"Pretty much sums me up, yeah." the Doctor nodded.

"The question is, how did you get in?" Van Statten asked, "53 floors down with your little cat burglar accomplice." he eyed Autumn, "Quite a collector yourself, she's rather pretty."

"She could also punch you in the face." Autumn threatened, glaring at him.

She hated people like him; people who thought they were the most important person in the Universe and treated other people like they were nothing.

"This is Mr. Henry Van Statten." Adam told them before Autumn really did punch him in the face, "Mr. Van Statten owns the internet."

Autumn rolled her eyes, "Good for him."

"But let's just keep the whole world thinking that no one owns it, right kids?" Van Statten grinned.

"So you're an expert on just about everything except the things in your museum." the Doctor sumarised, "Anything you don't understand, you lock up."

"And you you claim greater knowledge?" Van Statten raised an eyebrow.

"I don't need to make claims," he remarked, "I know how good I am."

"And yet, I captured you." Van Statten pointed out, "Right next to the cage. What were you doing down there?"

"You tell me." he replied.

"The cage contains my one living specimen."

"And what is it?"

"Like you don't know."

"Show me."

"You wanna see it?"

"This is getting boring fast." Autumn muttered, rolling her eyes.

"Goddard, inform the cage." Van Satten ordered, "We're heading down." Goddard nodded and he turned to Adam, "You; English. Look after the girl." Autumn scowled at being called 'the girl', "Canoodle or spoon, or whatever it is you British do. And you, Doctor with no name..." he turned to him as he reache the lift, "Come and see my pet."

XXX

"We've tried everything." Van Statten remarked as he lead the Doctor to the cage, "The creature has... shielded itself but there's definate signs of life inside."

"Inside?" the Doctor frowned, "Inside what?"

"Welcome back, sir." a man in red hazmat suit, Simmons, greeted, "I've had to take the power down, the Metaltron is resting."

"Metaltron?" the Doctor asked.

"Thought of it myself." Van Statten smirked, "Good, isn't it? Although I'd much rather to prefer to find out its real name."

"Here, you'd better put these on." Simmons offered the Doctor a pair of gloves, "The last guy that touched it... burst into flames."

"I won't touch it then." the Doctor replied.

"Go ahead, Doctor." Van Statten said, "Impress me."

The Doctor stepped into the cage and the door shut behind him. The whole room was dark except for a blue light that was coming from the alien.

"Look, I'm sorry about this." the Doctor told it, "Mr. Van Statten might think he's clever but never mind him. I've come to help. I'm the Doctor."

"Doctor." the alien croaked.

The Doctor's eyes widened in absolute shock and horror, "Impossible."

"THE Doctor?" the lights turned on, illumitnating the Dalek, "Exterminate! Exterminate! Exterminate!"

"Let me out!" the Doctor banged on the door.

"Exteminate!" the Dalek exclaimed, "You are an enemy of the Daleks! You must be destroyed!" it waved its laser arm around uselessly and the Doctor frowned at it.

"It's not working!" he realised, a grin forming on his face, "Fantastic! Oh, fantastic! Powerless! Look at you. The Great Space Dustbin. How does it feel?" he luged at the Dalek.

"Keep back!" it yelled.

"What for?" he asked, peering into its eyestalk, "What're are you going to do to me? If you can't kill... then what are you good for, Dalek? What's the point of you? You're nothing. What the hell are you here for?"

"I am waiting for orders." it answered

"What does that mean?" the Doctor asked.

"I am a soldier." it replied, "I was bred to receive orders."

"Well you're never gonna get any." he told it, "Not ever."

"I demand orders!" it exclaimed.

"They're never gonna come!" the Doctor yelled, "Your race is dead! You all burnt, all of you. Ten million ships on fire, the entire Dalek race wiped out in one second."

"You lie!"

"I watched it happen. I MADE it happen!"

"You destroyed us?" it asked.

The Doctor deflated and turned away from the Dalek, "I had no choice."

"And what of the Time Lords?"

"Dead." he replied, "They burnt with you. The end of the last great Time War. Everyone lost."

"And coward survived."

"Oh, and caught your little signal..." the Doctor remarked mockingly, "Help me... poor little thing... But there's no on else coming cos there's no one else left."

The Dalek lowered it's eyestalk, "I am alone in the Universe."

"Yep." the Doctor agreed.

"So are you." it commented, "We are the same."

He span around to face it angrily, "We're not the same, I'm not..." he paused, "No, wait. Maybe we are. You're right, yeah, okay. You've got a point. Cos I know what to do. I know what you deserve." he raised his eybrows, "Exterminate." he pulled a lever on a control pannel and the Dalek was electricuted.

"Have pity!" the Dalek begged.

"Why should I?" he demanded, "You never did." he turned up the voltage.

"Help me!" the Dalek cried.

The guards suddenly barged in and pulled the Doctor away from the control pannel as Van Statten approched the Dalek, "I saved your life," he told it, "Now talk to me! Goddamn it, talk to me!"

"You've got to destroy it!" the Doctor called as he was dragged away.

"The last in the Universe." Van Statten remarked, "And now I know your name. Dalek. Speak to me, Dalek." the Dalek was silent, "I am Henry Van Statten, now recognise me!" the Dalek remained silent so he turned to Simmon, "Make it talk again, Simmons. Whatever it takes."

XXX

Adam lead Autumn into his workshop which had alien artefacts scattered all over it, "Sorry about the mess." he said, "Mr. Van Statten sort of lets me do my own thing. So long as I deliver the goods..." he showed her a metal object, "What do you think, that it?"

"Could be..." Autumn began, before she smirked and decided to have a little fun, "No idea." she said, playing dumb, "What is it?"

"I think, well, I'm almost certain it's from the hull of a spacecraft." he replied. Autumn rolled her eyed internally, that was most definatley not from the hull of a spacecraft, "The thing is, it's all true. Everything the United Nations tries to keep quiet, spacecrafts, aliens, visitors to Earth, they really exist."

"No way!" Autumn fake gasped.

"I know it sounds incredible," Adam remarked, "But I honestly believe that the whole Universe is teeming with life."

"I'm speachless." Autumn lied, "So, what do you do all day? Catalouge this stuff?"

"Best job in the world." he commented.

"Wouldn't you rather be downstairs?" she asked, "Van Statten's got a living creature down there."

"Yeah..." Adam replied, "Yeah well I did ask but he keeps its to himself. Although, it doesn't take long to patch in on the comms system."

"Show me, then." she said.

They both turned to his computer and he tapped some keys, "It doesn't do much, the alien. It's weird, it's kind of... useless, it's just like this... great big pepper pot."

Autumn looked at the screen and her eyes widened as she saw a Dalek chained up and being tortured, "No." she muttered.

They were extinct! They had been wiped out in the Time War, the Doctor had told her!

The Doctor.

He had gone down the cage.

He couldn't see the Dalek! It would just bring back all the pain and guilt from the war and he was just starting to heal. This would put he back months!

"Is that where the Doctor's gone?" she asked Adam, just to be sure.

"Yeah." he nodded.

"He can't see that." she started backing at of the room, "Take me down there, now!"

XXX

"The metal's just the battle armour," the Doctor told Van Statten and Goddard as they stood in a lift with a few security guards, "The real Dalek creature's inside."

"What does it look like?" Van Statten asked.

"A nightmare." the Doctor answered, "It's a mutation. The Dalek race was genectically engineered, every single emotion was removed except hate."

"Genentically engineered..." Van Statten mused, "By whom?"

"By a genius, Van Statten." the Doctor replied, "Buy a man who was king of his own little world, you'd like him."

"It's been on Earth for over fifty years," Goddard remarked, "Sold at a private auction moving from one collection to another. Why would it be a threat now?"

"Because I'm here." he answered, "How did it get to Earth? Does anyone know?"

"Records say it came from the sky like a meteorite." Goddard replied, "It fell to Earth on the Ascension Islands, burnt in its crater for nearly three days before anybody could get near it and all that time it was screaming. It must've gone insane."

"Must've fallen through time." the Doctor commented, "The only survior."

"You talked about a war?" Goddard asked.

"The Time War." the Doctor replied, "The final battle between my people and the Dalek race."

"But you survived too." Van Statten remarked.

"Not by choice." the Doctor muttered.

"This means that the Dalek isn't the only alien on Earth, Doctor," Van Statten eyed him, "There's you. The only one of your kind in existence."


	20. Dalek: Condition Red

Dalek: Condition Red

Lights flashed on to illuminate the Doctor strapped to an examnation board, "Now, smile!" Van Statten grinned, running a scan on the Doctor, "Two hearts! Binary vascular system! Oh, I am so going to patent this."

"So that's your secret." the Doctor remarked, "You don't just collect this stuff, you scavenge it."

"This technology has been falling to Earth for centuries." Van Statten told him, "All it took was the right mind to use it properly. Oh, the advances I've made from alien junk, you have no idea, Doctor. Broadband? Rosewell. Just last year my scientists cultivated bacteria from the Russian Crater, and do you know what they found? The cure for the common cold. Kept it strictly within the laboratory of course, no need to get people excited. Why sell one cure when I can sell a thousand palliatives?" he smiled smugly.

"Do you know what a Dalek is, Van Statten?" the Doctor asked, "A Dalek is honest. It does what it was born to do for the survival of its species, that creature in yout dungeon is better than you."

"In that case, I will be true to myself and contiue." Van Statten commented.

"Listen to me," the Doctor said frantically, "That thing downstairs is going to kill everylast one of us!"

"Nothing can escape the Cage." Van Statten told him, running the scan again and making the Doctor writhe in pain.

"But it's woken up!" he exclaimed, "It knows I'm here! It's gonna get out! Van Statten, I swear no one on this base is safe! No one on this planet!"

XXX

"Hold it right there!" a guard called as Adam and Autumn approached the cage.

Adam flashed his ID, "Level three access. Special clearance from Mr Van Statten."

The guards let them pass and they entered the cage. Autumn eyed the Dalek warily, even if it was chained up it was still deadly. She cautiously walked closer to it, "Hello." she greeted, "I'm Autumn Skies." she looked down at it with false sympathy, "Are you in pain?"

"Yes." it croaked.

"Good." she spat, her face morphing into a glare, "I know what you are. I know what you've done and you deserve to be in pain." she shook her head at it, "I hope you die down here, in pain and alone." she turned to walk away when she tripped over a wire and her hand shot out and held onto the Dalek to steady her. Autumn gasped and pulled her hand back watching in horror as a burning hand print appeared on the Dalek's head.

"Genentic material extrapolated," the Dalek stated, "Initiate cellular reconstruction!" it burst out of its chains as Simmons entered.

"What the hell have you done?" he demanded, approching the Dalek who pointed its sucker arm at him, "Whatcha gonna do? Sucker me to death?" the Dalek covered Simmons face with his sucker and sucked inwards, killing him.

Autumn and Adam ran out of the cage, "You've got to kill it!" she told one of the guards urgently.

"Condition red!" the guard called over a comm, "Reapeat, condition red! This is not a drill!"

XXX

Van statten looked up as he heard the alarm and the Doctor rose his head weakly, "Release me if you want to live."

XXX

The Doctor, Goddard, Van Statten and a few security guards exited the lift and strode into Van Satten office. The Doctor walked over to a monnitor that was connected to the Cage lobby, "You've got to keep it in that cell."

"I've sealed the compartment." a guard told him, "It can't get out, that lock's got a billion combinations."

Autumn scoffed, "Oh, like that's gonna stop a Dalek."

"The Dalek's a genius." the Doctor agreed, though he was surprised to see Autumn down there and if he said his hearts hadn't pinged in worry for her when he saw her there, he'd be lying, "It can calculate a thousand billion combinations in one second flat.

XXX

Autumn and Adam stood outside the Dalek's cell, watching as it glided out and the guards opened fire on it.

XXX

"Don't shoot it," Van Statten ordered, "I want it unharmed!"

"Autumn, get out of there!" the Doctor called.

XXX

"De Maggio," a male guard turned to female one, "Take the civillians and get them out alive. That is your job, got that?"

De Maggio nodded, turning to Adam and Autumn, "You, with me." she jogged off and they followed her.

XXX

"We're losing power." Goddard remarked as she sat at a computer, Van Statten and the Doctor watching over her shoulders, "It's draining the base. Oh, my God. It's raiding entire power supplies for the whole of Utah."

"It's downloading." the Doctor told them.

"Downloading what?" Van Statten asked.

"Sir, the entire West Coast has gone down." Goddard informed him.

"It's not just energy." the Doctor commented, "That Dalek just absorbed the entire Internet. It knows everthing."

"Sir, the cameras in the vault have gone down." Goddard told him.

"We've only got emergancy power," the Doctor remarked, "It's eaten everything else, you've got to kill it now!"

"All guards to converge in the Metaltron cage, immediatley." Goddard ordered over a comm.

XXX

Autum and Adam ran past another group of guards lead by De Maggio, "Civillians!" she yelled, "Let them through!"

XXX

"Tell them to stop shoot at it." Van Statten ordered Goddard.

"It's killing them!" she exclaimed.

"They're dispensable," he remarked, "That Dalek is unique." he picked up a comm, "I don't want a scratch on it's body work! Do you hear me? Do you hear me?"

The sounds of gunshots faded into silence.

Goddard sat down at a computer and brought up a map to show the Doctor, "That's us right below the surface." she pointed at the screen, "That's the cage, and that's the Dalek."

"This museum of yours, have you got any alien weapons?" the Doctor asked.

"Lots of them," she replied, "But the trouble is the Dalek's between us and them."

"We've got to keep that thing alive." Van Statten commented, "We could just seal the entire vault, trap it down there."

"Leaving everyone trapped with it?" the Doctor glared, "Autumn is down there. I won't let that happen. Have you got that?" he turned back to Goddard, "It's got to go through this area. What's that?"

"Weapons testing." she answered.

"Give guns to the lawyers, technicians, anyone." he ordered, "Everyone. Only then have you got a chance of killing it."

Goddard nodded, getting up, and the Doctor took her place at the computer.

XXX

Autumn ran down a corridor and up a flight of stairs as Adam and De Maggio paused at the bottom of the stairs, "Stairs!" Adam laughed, "It's stuck!"

Autum shook her head at him, "21st centurty humans." she muttered before turning to face them as they walked up the stairs, "Do you think the Daleks would able to invade planets, destroy civilisations and speicies, if they could be stopped by stairs?" she raised an eyebrow. "They can fly." she looked over their shoulder as the Dalek came to stop by the stairs, "Here we go."

It looked up at them and they staired at it warily, "Now, listen to me." De Maggio stepped foward, "I demand that you return to your cage. If you want to negotiate, then I guarentee that Mr Van Statten will be willing to talk. I accept that we imprisoned you and maybe that was wrong. But people have died, and that stops. Right now. The killing stops, have you got that? I demand that you surrender, is that clear?"

"El-ev-ate." the Dalek rose off the floor and stared to float up the stairs.

"Oh, my God." Adam muttered, having not really believed what Autumn said.

"Adam, get her out of here." De Maggio ordered.

"You won't be able to stop it." Autumn told her.

"Someone's got to try." she replied, "Now get out! Don't look back, just run!"

Autumn and Adam ran up the rest of the stairs and down a corridor. A moment later they heard the screams of De Maggio

XXX

"I thought you were the great expert, Doctor." Van Statten remarked, "If you're so impressive, then why not just reason with this Dalek? It must be willing to negotiate, there must be something it needs, everything needs something."

"What's the nearest town?" the Doctor asked randomly.

"Saltlake City." Van Statten answered.

"Poplulation?"

"One million."

"All dead." the Doctor stated, "If the Dalek gets out, it'll murder every living creature, that's all it needs."

"But why would it do that?!" Van Statten yelled angrily.

"Because it honestly believes they should die." he replied, "Human beings are different, and anything differnt is wrong. It's the ultimate in racial cleansing and you, Van Statten you've let it loose!"

A few minutes later, the Doctor was talking to the soldiers through a comm, "The Dalek's surrounded by a force field." he told the soldiers, "The bullets are melting before they even hit home but it's not indestructible. If you concentrate your fire, you might get through. Aim for the dome, the head, the eyepiece. That's the weak spot."

"Thank you, Doctor," the comander scoffed, "But I think I known how to fight one single tin robot."

XXX

Autumn and Adam ran into an open area where all the soldiers were positioned.

"Hold your fire!" the commander yelled, "You two, get the hell out of there!"

Autumn and Adam ran past them and waited in the outskirts, watching as the Dalek glided into the room. It roved it's eye around and concentrated on Autumn.

Autumn backed away and ran out of the room, Adam following her.

XXX

"We've got vision." Goddard stated as a monnitor turned on showing the Dalek standing before the gathered soldiers.

"It wants us to see." the Doctor remarked.

The Dalek stared at the camera unconcered about the bullets heading its way. It slowly turned away before it shot a fire alarm, turning on the sprinklers. It shot a wet patch on the floor and the water spread the eclectricity, killing everyone.

The three off them stared at the monnitor, stunned silent.

"Perhaps it's time for a new strategy," Van Statten muttered, stunned, "Maybe we should consider abandoning this place."

"Except there's no power to the helipad, sir." Goddard told him, "We can't get out."

"You said you could seal the vault." the Doctor remarked.

"It was designed to be a bunker." Van Statten told the Doctor, walking over to the computer, "In the event of a nuclear war, steel bulkheads-"

"There's not enough power," Goddard cut in, "Those bulkheads are massive."

"We've got emergancy power," the Doctor reminded her, "We can re-route that to the bulkhead doors.

"We'd have to bypass the security codes," Goddard shook her head, "That would take a computer genius!"

"Good thing you've got me, then." Van Statten commented.

"You want to help?" the Doctor scoffed.

"I don't want to die, Doctor," he replied, "Simple as that. Nobody knows this software better than me."

The screen suddenly flared to life and the Dalek stood in the middle of the screen.

"Sir..." Goddard called.

"I shall speak only to the Doctor." the Dalek declared.

"You're gonna get rusty." the Doctor remarked, walking towards the screen.

"I fed off the DNA of Autumn Skies." it told him, "Extrapolating the biomass of a time traveller regenerated me."

"What's your next trick?" he asked.

"I have been searching for the Daleks."

"Yeah, I saw." he nodded, "Downloading the Internet. What did you find?"

"I scanned your satellites and radio telescopes."

"And?"

"Nothing." it replied, almost sounding... _scared_ , "Where shall I get my orders now?"

"You're just a soldier without commands." the Doctor commented.

"Then is shall follow the primary order," it told him, "The Dalek instict to destroy! To conquer!"

"What for?" he asked, exasperated, "What's the point? Don't you see? It's all gone. Everything you were, everything you stood for."

"Then what should I do?" it asked.

"All right then." he nodded, "If you want orders follow this one: kill yourself."

"The Daleks must survive!" it exclaimed.

"That Daleks have failed!" he yelled angrily, "Why don't you finnish the job make the Daleks extinct? Rid the Universe of your filth, why don't you just die?!"

The Dalek was silent a moment, "You would make a good Dalek."

The screen blinked off and the Doctor stared at it a moment, stunned, before he turned to Goddard and Van Statten, "Seal the Vaults."

A few minutes later the Doctor and Van Statten were both typing into computers, "I can leech the power off the ground defences, feed it to the bulkheads." Van Statten remarked, "It's been years since I had to work this fast."

"Are you enjoying this?" the Doctor asked incredulously.

"Doctor, she's still down there." Goddard told him.

* * *

 _AN: So sorry there was no update last week, my internet was down. I forgot to reply to reviews after the last chapter... again, so I'll do it now._

 _Replies to reviews..._

 _Ronin Kenshin: Thanks!_

 _NicoleR85: Thanks! You'll have to wait and see if I'll do an episode similar to fathers day, but I agree, I don't think Autumn would be as stupid as Rose, even if she could save her family. Thanks for reviewing!_

 _SimplyA9315: Thanks! I'm glad you like the story and Autumn._

 **PLEASE REVIEW! I'M DESPERATE! SERIOUSLY! REVIEW!**


	21. Dalek: Revelations

Dalek: Revelation

Autumn and Adam ran up a flight of stairs when Autumn's phone rang. She rolled her eyes, but got it out of her pocket and put it up to her ear, "What?" she snapped, knowing it was the Doctor.

" _Where are you?_ " the Doctor asked.

"Level 49." she replied.

XXX

"You've got to keep moving," the Doctor told her, still typing on the computer, "The Vault's being sealed off, bulkhead level 46."

"We'll make it." she remarked, not letting herself think about the other option.

"I can't wait and I can't help you." he told her, "Now for God's sake, run."

XXX

Autumn and Adam ran up the stairs, the Dalek just behind them.

XXX

"Done it." Van Statten said, "We've got power to the bulkheads."

"The Dalek's right behind them." Goddard remarked.

XXX

Autumn and Adam ran round a corner onto level 46.

"I'm almost there." she told the Doctor.

XXX

"Doctor, I can't sustain the power." Van Statten told him, "The whole system is failing." the Doctor looked at him, "Doctor, you've got to close the bulkheads."

The Doctor paused for a moment, "I'm sorry." he breathed and hit the key to close the bulkheads.

XXX

"Come on!" Adam yelled as the bulkheads started to close and Autumn lagged behind.

Adam managed to roll under the bulkhead.

XXX

"The vault is sealed." Van Statten declared.

"Autumn, where are you?" the Doctor asked, leaping out of his seat, "Autumn, did you make it?"

XXX

Autumn lent her forehead against the bulkhead, shaking her head at herself, "No." she swallowed hard, "I didn't make it."

XXX

The Doctor stared ahead, horrified.

XXX

"It's okay." she told him, "This was all my fault anyway. So, its only fitting that I die as well." she slowly turned to face the other way, "This was _not_ your fault, okay? Don't think for one second that it was. You carry too much guilt with you already."

She swallowed hard, feeling tears well up in her eyes. She wasn't crying because she was about to die, she was crying becuse she was saying goodbye. Both her and the Doctor had said goodbye too may times before, actually they never got to say it most of the time.

"And if, on the odd chance, you ever meet my sister," she swallowed hard, "Just tell I love her." she eyed the Dalek as it glided towards her, "Goodybe, Doctor."

XXX

 _"Exterminate!"_

The Doctor ripped the eairpice off and stared at the ground in horror, "I killed her." he muttered.

She was gone.

Autumn was gone.

After the war, he hadn't cared about anything, even his life. If he died it would just be an excape for the never ending hell that was his life. Then he'd met Autumn and she'd surprised him with her bravery and how she selflessly saved the Earth. He'd empathised with her loss, although she hadn't know how great her loss had been at the time.

And as they travelled together and he'd gotten to know her he started to care. About her and about him because he'd found something. Something special. Some _one_ special.

And when he told her what he did, how he destroyed his planet, and she looked at him like he wasn't a monster, he could believe that he wasn't. And slowly she'd become a ray of light in the never ending darkness that was his life.

But now she was gone. Her light had flickered out and it was all his fault.

He felt a rage at the Daleks build inside him and cover the greif. How many times would they take the people he loved from him?

They took his friends, his family, his planet and now Autumn.

No more. He swore, shivering at the memories those words brought him. He would lose no more to the Daleks because he's destroy the one in the bunker and make them exstict.

"I'm sorry." Van Statten told him.

"I said I'd proctect her." he turned to Van Statten, his anger rising, "She was only here because of me, and you're sorry? I could've killed that Dalek in its cell. But you stopped me."

"It was the prize of my collection!" Van Statten defended.

"Your collection?!" he yelled, furious, "But was it worth it? Worth all those men's deaths? Worth Autumn? Let me tell you something, Van Statten. Mankind goes into space to explore. To be a part of something greater."

"Exactly!" Van Statten exclaimed, standing enthusiastically, "I wanted touch the stars!"

"You just want to drag the stars down and stick them underground underneath tons of sand and dirt." he shook his head, "And label them. You're about as far from the stars as you can get." he paused and his face morphed into a hollow, striken expression, "And you took her down with you."

XXX

Autumn stared at the Dalek as it just stood there, "Kill me, then!" the Dalek just stared, "What are you waiting for?!"

"I feel you fear." it said.

"Daleks can't feel fear." Autumn shook her head, "Daleks can't feel anything!"

"Daleks do not fear." it seemed to agree, "Must not fear." it shot its laser around wildly, "You gave me life. What else have you given me? I am contaminated!"

XXX

Adam stepped out of the lift into Van Stattens office and the Doctor rounded on him, "You were quick on your feet, leaving Autumn behind."

"I'm not the one who sealed the vault!" Adam retorted.

Suudenly the screen sprun to live, displaying Autumn standing next to the Dalek, "Open the bulkhead or Autumn Skies dies." the Dalek threatened.

"You're alive!" the Doctor exclaimed with joy.

Autumn rolled her eyes, "Like a stupid Dalek could stop me."

"I thought you were dead." he told her, his voice thick with emotion, and Autumn swallowed hard.

"Open the bulkhead!" the Dalek demanded.

"Don't do it." Autumn said calmly, "Don't you dare."

"What use are emotions if you will not save the woman you love?" the Dalek asked.

The Doctor stared at it, stunned. Stunned that a Dalek understood love, stunned that it was...right.

It was. It was right.

He... _loved_ her. He _really_ did.

After the war, he never thought he'd fall in love again since all the Time Lords were gone, but he _had_. With Autumn.

He swallowed hard, he couldn't think about this now. He turned to Van Satten, "I killled her once." he remarked, walking over to the computer, "I can't do it again."

XXX

The bulkhead opened and the Dalek and Autumn went through it.

XXX

"What do we do now?" Van Statten asked desperatley, "You bleeding heart, what the hell do we do?"

"Kill it when it gets here!" Adam suggested.

"All the guns are usless," Goddard told him, "And the alien weapons are in the vault."

"Only the catalogued ones." Adam admitted.

XXX

The Doctor was in Adam's workshop, going through a basket of weapons, "Broken." he remarked, chucking one aside, "Broken. Hairdryer."

"Mr Van Statten tends to dispose of his staff," Adam explained, "And when he does he wipes their memory. I kept this stuff in case I needed to fight my way out on day."

"What, you in a fight?" the Doctor scoffed, "I'd like to see that."

"I could do." Adam frowned.

"What you gonna do," he raised his eyebrows, "Throw your A Levels at 'em?" he lifted a weapon up, "Oh, yes. Lock and load."

XXX

Autumn and the Dalek stood in the lift when the doors opened into Van Statten's office, "Van Statten." the Dalek adavanced on him, "You tortured me. Why?"

"I want to help you," Van Statten backed away, "I just... I don't know, I... I was just trying to help. I though if we could get through to you, if we could mend you... I wanted you better, I'm sorry." the Dalek backed him against a wall, "I'm so sorry! I swear! I just wanted you to talk!"

"Then hear me talk now." the Dalek remarked, "Exterminate! Exterminate!"

"Stop!" Autumn called and the Dalek span around to face her, "He may be an arrogant bastard, but he doesn't deserve to die." she looked around the room, she needed to get it away from the people so it wouldn't be tempted to kill them, "There must be something else you want. Other than killing."

"I want freedom." the Dalek said.

XXX

The Docto ran up the stairs.

XXX

Autumn and the Dalek emerged onto floor one and the Dalek fired its laser at ceiling, letting a ray of sunlight shine through.

"There you go." Autumn remarked tensly, waiting for the Doctor to show up with what ever alien weapon he had found, "Freedom."

The Dalek opened its casing, revealing the mutant inside and reahing a tenticle out to the sun.

"Get out of the way." the Doctor order from behind her and she spun around.

"Finally." she muttered, jogging over to his side.

The Doctor frowned at the Dalek, "What's it doing?"

"I don't know." she replied, frowning, "I think it likes the sunlight."

"But it can't..." he shook his head.

"Normally, I'd agree." Autumn remarked, "But it is different to other Daleks. It listened to me when I told it not to kill Van Statten."

"Why do we survive?" the Dalek suddenly asked.

"I don't know." the Doctor replied.

"I am the last of the Daleks."

"You're not even that." the Doctor commented, "Autumn did more than regenerate you. You absorbed her DNA. You're mutating."

"Into what?" the Dalek asked.

"Something new." the Doctor answered, "I'm sorry."

"I can feel so many ideas." the Dalek said, "So much darkness... Autumn... give me orders! Order me to die."

"Okay," Autumn nodded, "Kill yourself, Dalek."

"Are you frightened, Autumn Skies?" it asked.

She shook her head, "No."

"I am." it said, "Exterminate."

It rose into the air and the balls on its body floated off of him and formed a circle, creating a forcfield. The Doctor and Autumn watched as the Dalek self destructed and dissappeard.

XXX

Autumn and the Doctor stood by the TARDIS back in the showcase room, "Little piece of home." the Doctor remarked sadly, patting the TARDIS, "Better than nothing."

"This is the end of the Time War." Autumn remarked, "It's finally finished."

"I'm the only one left." the Doctor told her, "I win. How about that."

Autumn put her hand on his arm in comfort, knowing how he felt, and he smiled awkwardly at her. After his revelation ealier, he couldn't help but feel awkward around her. He knew he couldn't tell her, she would never feel the same, and it would just make it even more awkward for both them.

"Come on." she nuged him into the TARDIS, "We better go before that annoying kid finds us."

He smiled slightly and they walked into the TARDIS just as Adam jogged into the room. He frowned for a moment before his eyes widened as he watched the TARDIS disappear.

* * *

 _AN: Oooh! Revelation for the Doctor! I'm not sure if this is too soon, but I feel that this is where he realised he had some sort of feelings for Rose in the show and he has been travelling with Autumn for a month longer than her had with Rose. And I feel he'd be more open to falling in love with Autumn since she's not human and she won't wither and die. Let me know what you think in a review!_

 _Replies to reviews..._

 _NicoleR85: Thanks! Hope you enjoyed this chapter!_

 _Aka-Baka Hoshi: Thanks!_

 **PLEASE REVIEW! PLEASE!**

PS:... **PLEASE REVIEW!**


	22. The Long Game: Satellite Five

_AN: I'm back! I'm so sorry for not updating for a while, I just had serious writers block for ages, but I'm back now and hopefully be back to posting every week. To say sorry there's a little surprise at the end of the chapter._

* * *

The Long Game: Satellite Five

The TARDIS in a futuristic looking room and the Doctor and Autumn stepped out, "So, it's 200,000," he told her, "It's a spaceship."

"I think it's a space station, actually." Autumn remarked.

They had just been to the day where electricity was discovered. They were looking for her sister still, but they had found her, they hadn't even found a hint of her and her expedition team and Autumn was beginning to worry, but she hid it well.

The Doctor nodded in agreement, "Let's try that gate over there."

They walked past the gate on into an observation deck where Earth was suspended in space outside, "The fourth great and bountiful empire." the Doctor commented, "And there it is. Planet Earth at it's height. Covered with mega-cities, five moons, population 96 billion. The hub of a galactic domain, stretching across a million planets, a million species, with Mankind right in the middle."

Autumn stared out the window curiously, they didn't usually come this far into the future, except from the trip to the end of the Earth, and she always found it weird. When she was in the past, she knew so much more than the people there did, but in the future she hardly knew anything and it was weird, not necessarily _bad_ , just weird.

XXX

"You're gonna like this fantastic period of history." the Doctor remarked as he and Autumn walked through the space station, "The human race at its most intelligent, culture, art, politics. This era has got find food, good manners-"

"Out of the way!" a man sad rudely.

The station suddenly sprung to life as food stalls where set up and people bustled in, chattering loudly.

"One at a time..." a chef said, "Oi! You, mate! Stop pushing. Get back. I SAID, back."

Autumn frowned as she looked around, this was the opposite of what the Doctor described. He could be wrong but he never had been before. She turned to the Doctor who was looking around with a frown, "You've got that face on."

He span to face her, "What face?"

"The face you get when you know something's wrong." she replied.

He shook his head, "My watch just must me wrong." he commented, glancing down at it, "No, it's fine... weird."

She nodded, "So, something _is_ wrong."

He shook his head, "Nothing's wrong."

She crossed her arms, "Well, either you don't know your history or something's wrong."

"My history's perfect." he told her.

"Then something is wrong." she pointed out, "Because this is nothing like you described."

He frowned a looked around, spotting two women talking to each other quietly, "Come on." he took her hand, ignoring how right it felt. Seriously, the revelation he had in Van Statten's museum was really annoying, he wished he could just be cluelessly in the dark like he had been before. He shook of his thoughts and lead her over to the two women, "Erm... this is gonna sound daft, but can you tell me where I am?"

"Floor 139..." one of the women, a black woman, replied, gesturing to the floor sign, "Could they write it any bigger?"

"Floor 139 of what?" Autumn asked.

"Must've been a hell of a part." the black woman commented.

"Oh, you're on Satellite Five." the other woman, a brunette, told them.

"What's Satellite Five?" the Doctor wondered

"Come on, how could you get on board without knowing where you?" the black woman asked impatiently.

"Sorry." Autumn said with a look of false sympathy, patting the Doctor's arm, "He's a bit slow." the Doctor sent her a look but she ignored him.

"Hang on, wait a minute," the brunette frowned, looking between them, "Are you a test? Some sort of management test kind of thing?"

"Well done." Autumn nodded, holding up the psychic paper she'd stolen off the Doctor, making him look at her sharply, "You're too clever for us."

"We were warned about this in basic training." the brunette told the black woman, "All workers have to be versed in company promotion."

"Right." the black woman straightened, "Fire away, ask your questions. If it gets me to Floor 500 I'll do anything."

"Why, what's Floor 500?" Autumn asked.

"The walls of made of gold." she answered, as though it were obvious, "And you should know... Mrs. Management. So... this is what we do." she walked away and lead them to a bank of screens, "Latest news... sandstorms on the new Venus archipelago. Two hundred dead. Glasgow water riots into their third day... space lane 37 closed by sunspot activity. And over on the Bad Wolf channel, the Face of Boe has just announced he's pregnant."

"We get it." the Doctor cut in, "You broadcast the news."

"We ARE the news." the black woman corrected, "We're the journalists. We write it, package it and sell it. 600 channels all coming out of Satellite Five, broadcasting everywhere. Nothing happens in the whole human empire without it going through us."

XXX

"Now." the black woman said as the Doctor and Autumn stood on the outskirts of the room. The black woman was sitting on a dentists chair that was on an octagonal platform. Employees were sitting crossed legged around the platform, their hands resting on hand pads, "Everyone behave. We have a management inspection." she turned to the Doctor and Autumn, "How do you want it? By the book?"

"Oh, right from scratch, thanks." the Doctor answered.

"Ok, so, ladies and gentlemen, multisex, undecided or robot," she began, "My name is Cathica Satntini Kadainy. That's Cathica with a 'C', in case you want to write to Floor 500 praising me, and please... do..." she glanced at the Doctor and Autumn, who both gave non committal nods, "Now, please feel free to ask any questions. The process of news gathering must be open, honest, and be non-biased. That's company policy."

"Actually..." the brunette woman from earlier spoke up, "It's the law."

"Yes, thank you, Suki." Cathica said, annoyed, "Okay, keep it calm... don't show off for the guests... here we go." she layed back in the chair, "And... engage safety..." the staff held their hand pads and Cathica clicked her fingers, opening a door in her head. The staff closed their eyes and put their hands on their pads, "And 3... 2... and spike." a blue light streamed down into Cathica's brain from the machine above her.

"Compressed information," the Doctor remarked, "Streaming into her. Reports from every city, every country, every planet, and they all get packaged inside her head. She becomes part of the software. Here brain IS the computer."

Autumn frowned, "Wouldn't that make her head blow up?"

"If she remembered it, yeah." he replied, "But the brain's the processor. As soon as it closes, she forgets." he frowned, "This technology's wrong."

Autumn glanced at him, sighing, "I swear your a magnet for trouble."

He just grinned at her and she couldn't stop herself from grinning back.

Suki suddenly gasped and pulled her hands from her pad. The compressed information stopped streaming into Cathica and the door in her head closed, "Come of it, Suki," Cathica scoffed in annoyance, "I wasn't even halfway, what was that for?"

"Sorry," Suki muttered, "Must've been a glitch..."

Cathica stood up when a projection suddenly sprung up on the wall, "Promotion." a voice announced.

"This is it." Cathica murmured, "Come on. God, make it me. Come on, say my name." the Doctor and Autumn glanced at her in slight concern at her desperateness, "Say my name, say my name..."

"Promotion for... Suki Macrae Cantrell." a voice declared and Suki's mouth dropped open while Cathica looked gutted, "Please proceed to Floor 500."

"I don't believe it..." Suki remarked, standing up and staring at the projection, "Floor 500..."

"How the hell did you manage that?" Cathica demanded, "I'm above you!"

"I don't know," Suki replied, "I just applied on the off chance... and they've said yes!"

"That's so not far," Cathica grumbled, "I've been applying for Floor 500 for three years!"

XXX

The Doctor, Autumn and Cathica were gathered around the lift to say goodbye to Suki, "Cathica, I'm gonna miss you!" Suki exclaimed, "Floor 500..." she turned to the Doctor and Autumn, "Thank you!"

"We didn't do anything!" the Doctor told her.

"Well, you're my lucky charms!" she remarked.

"All right!" the Doctor grinned, "I'll hug anyone!"

Suki giggled and hugged the Doctor before hugging an uncomfortable Autumn. She didn't really hug people, except the people she loved.

"Oh, my God," Suki gasped, "I've got to go, I can't keep them waiting..." she picked up her bag and rushed to the lift, "I'm sorry!" the lift pinged open and she stepped inside, "Say goodbye to Steve for me. Bye!" the Doctor and Autumn waved as the doors closed.

"Good riddance." Cathica muttered sourly.

"You're talking like you'll never see her again." the Doctor remarked, "She's only going upstairs."

"We won't." Cathica replied, "Once you go to Floor 500 you never come back."

"Have you ever been up there?" the Doctor asked, following Cathica as she walking through the canteen.

"No." she shook her head, "You need a key for the lift and you only get a key with promotion. No one gets to 500 except the chosen few."

* * *

 _AN: I know it's short, but this episode wasn't my favourite so it was extra hard to write. Anyway, as I've been gone so long here's a sneak peak of the rewrite of my story Closure, which I have renamed Unremembered._

* * *

 _She ran. She ran and she ran and she ran. Tears streamed down her face as she heard the screams of her fallen comrades. She ran into a tall building and down a hall. She paused as she reached a row of metal cylinders about the size of a person._

 _She ran inside one of them, revealing a much larger room inside, and ran up to the console that was in the middle of the room. She flicked a few switches on the console and a sort of metal helmet dropped down from the ceiling._

 _She swallowed hard, staring at it, before reaching into her pocket and pulling out a silver fob watch. She wiped a stray tear from her eye and attached the watch to the helmet._

 _She secured the helmet around her head and closed her eyes. She flicked a switch on the console and..._

Alex Tyler gasped awake, putting a hand to her chest to calm herself down. She took a deep breath, trying (and failing) to forget about the dream (nightmare).

She had had the dream and similar ones for as long as she could remember. And she had no idea where they came from. She knew that the fob watch was her father's watch that her mother had given to her on her 15th birthday so she could remember her dad, he died when she was three, but other than that she didn't understand a single aspect. Why was there a battle going on in the background? What were those metal cylinders and why did she attach her watch to a helmet?

She groaned, she was never going to understand it, and glanced at her clock on her bedside table. Seeing that it was 7:30 AM, she got out of bed and started to get ready for work.

* * *

 _AN: Hope you enjoyed the chapter and the sneak peak. PLEASE REVIEW!_


	23. The Long Game: The Mighty Jagrafess

The Long Game: The Mighty Jagrafess

"Look, they only give us twenty minutes maintance," Cathica remarked as the Doctor and Autumn followed her back into the spike room, "Can't you give it a rest?"

"But you've never been to another floor?" the Doctor asked, sitting in the chair on the platform as Autumn stood next to it, her arms crossed, "Not even one floor down?"

"I went to floor 16 when I first arrived," Cathica told them, "That's medical, that's when I got my head done, and the I came straight here. Satellite Five, you work, eat and sleep on the same floor. That's it, that's all." she eyed them, "You're not management, are you?"

"At last!" the Doctor exclaimed, "She's clever!"

"Yeah, well, whatever it is, don't involve me." she remarked, "I don't know anything."

The Doctor shook his head, "Don't you even ask?"

Cathica shrugged, "Well, why WOULD I?"

"Why wouldn't you?" Autumn retorted.

"You're a journlalist!" the Doctor commented, "Why's the crew all human?"

Cathica sighed, "What's that got to do with anything?"

"There's no aliens on board." the Doctor pointed out, "Why?"

"I don't know," she shrugged, "No real reason, they're not banned or anything."

The Doctor looked around the room theatrically, "Then where are they?"

"I suppose immigrations tightened up." Cathica replied, looking for an answer, "It's had to, what, with all the threats."

"What threats?" Autumn asked.

"I don't know..." Cathica frowned, "All of them. Usual stuff. And the price of space warp doubled so that kept the visitors away... Oh, and the government on Traffic Five's collapsed, so that lot stopped coming, you see... just lots of little reasons, that's all."

"Adding up to one great big fact, and you didn't even notice." the Doctor remarked.

"Doctor, I think if there was any kind of conspiracy, Satellite Five would have seen it." Cathica told him, "We see everything."

"I can see better." the Doctor replied, "This society's the wrong shape. Even the technology."

"It's cutting edge!" Cathica defeneded.

"It's backward!" the Doctor exclaimed, "There's a great big door in your head! You should've chucked this out years ago."

"So, what's going on then?" Autumn asked, feeling weird as she asked that question. Usually, she knew what was going and was on the same page as the Doctor. But this time she didn't have a clue since it was so far in the future from her time.

"It's not just thus space station," the Doctor replied, "It's the whole attitude. It's the way people think. The great and bountiful human empire's stunted. Something's holding it back.

"And how would _you_ know?" Cathica asked.

"Trust me." he told her, "Humanity's been set back about 90 years, when did Satellite Five start broadcasting?"

"91 years ago..." Cathica replied, looking away thoughtfully.

XXX

"We're SO gonna get in trouble." Cathica hissed as the Doctor use the sonic on the door that hid the computer mainframe, "You're not allowed to touch the mainframe, you're gonna get told off."

"Autumn, tell her to button it." the Doctor muttered, focussing on his task.

Autumn rolled her eyes, "Tell her yourself."

"You can't just vandalise the place," Cathica whispered urgently, "Someone's gonna notice!" the Doctor just wrenched the door open and started fiddling with the wires, "This is nothing to do with me, I'm going back to work." she beagan to walk away.

"Go on then!" the Doctor called, "See ya!"

She stomped backed over to them, "I can't just leaved you, can I?"

Autumn sighed and shrugged her jacket off before she pulled her hair up in a high ponytail, "Why is it so hot?" she asked, wiping the sweat from her face.

"I don't know," Cathica replied, "We keep asking, something to do with the turbine."

"'Somthing to do with the turbine'." the Doctor mocked.

"Well, I don't know!" she exclaimed.

"Exactly!" he remarked, "I give up on you Cathica. Now, Autumn, look at Autumn." Autumn just rolled her eyes, running a hand through her hair, "Autumn is asking the right of questions. Why is it so hot?"

"One minute you're worried about the Empire and the next it's the central heating!" Cathica exclaimed, exaperated.

"Well, never underesimate plumbing." he commented, "Plumbing's very important." he fiddled with a few wires before he glanced at the screen before turning it to face Cathica, "Here we go, Sattellite Five. Pipes and plumbing. Look at the layout."

"This is ridulous." Cathica remarked, "You've got access to the computer's core. You can look at the archive, the news, the stock exchange... and you're looking at pipes?"

"But there's something wrong." he pointed out.

She turned back to the screen, "I suppose..."

Autumn was about to look at the screen as well before she realised that she probably wouldn't understand it, "What's wrong?"

"The ventillation system." Cathcia replied, "Colling ducts, ice filters, all working flat out... channelling massive ammouts of heat DOWN."

"All the way from the top." the Docor remarked.

"Floor 500." Autumn muttered.

"Something up there is generating tonnes and tonnes of heat." the Doctor commented.

"We'll have to go up there, then." Autumn remarked.

"You can't," Cathica reminded them, "You need a key."

"Keys are just codes," the Doctor replied, "And I've got the codes righ here." he gestured to the screen and tapped a few keys, "Here we go, override 215.9."

"How come it's giving _you_ the code?" Cathica asked.

The Doctor looked up at a security camera, "Someone up there likes us."

The lift doors opened and the Doctor and Autumn stepped inside whiled Cathica stayed outside, "You can come with us if you want." Autumn told her.

"No way!" she replied stubbornly.

"Bye!" the Doctor waved.

"Well, don't mention my name." Cathica remarked, "When you get in trouble, just don't invole me!" she stalked off.

"That's her gone." the Doctor commented, "Look like it's just you and me."

"Yep." Autumn agreed.

"Good." he remarked.

Autumn glanced at him out of the corner of her eye, she'd noticed he'd been acting different since Van Statten's, not obviously, just small differences, she supposed it was because he finally faced his deamons from the war and came out stronger from it. Maybe if she faced the Weeping Angels again she'd come out stronger as well. Though she doubted it, she'd really rather not see those aliens ever again.

Shaking off her thoughts, she nodded, "Mmmhmm."

They grinned at each and the Doctor slot a card into the lift controls before he grabbed her hand as the doors closed.

XXX

The lift doors opened and the Doctor and Autumn stepped out onto Floor 500, which was covered in snow, "The walls are not made of gold." the Doctor remarked, "You should go back up stairs."

Autumn rolled her eyes, "Yeah, right."

They walked through Floor 500 until they reached a room where a white haired man was watching some screens, "I started without you." the man commented, "This is fascinating. Satellite Five contains every piece of information within the Fourth Great and Bountiful Human Empire. Birth certificates, shopping habits, bank statements, but YOU two... you don't exist!" he laughed, "Not a trace! No birth, no job, not the slightest kiss. How can you walk through the world and not leave a single footprint?"

Autumn frowned as she spotted Suki sitting at one of the screen, "That's Suki." she muttered, "Suki! Suki!" Suki didn't react so she turned back to the white haired man, "What did you do to her?"

"I think she's dead." the Doctor told her, glancing at all the workers sitting at the screens, "They've all got chips in their head, and the chips keep going. Like puppets."

"Ohhh!" the man grinned, "You're full of information! But it's only fair we get some information back, because apparently, you're no on. It's so rare not to know something. Who are you?"

"It doesn't matter," the Doctor replied, "Cause we're off. Nice to meet you. Come on."

They made to leaved but the worker's corpses grabbed them and restrained them.

"Tell me who you are!" the man demanded.

"Since that information's keeping us alive, I'm hardly gonna say, am I?" the Doctor asked.

"Well, perhaps my Editor in Cheif can convince you otherwise." the man commented.

"And who's he?" Autumn wondered.

"It may intrest you to know that this is NOT the Fourth Great and Bountiful Human Empire." the man told them, "In fact, it's not actually human at all. It's merly a place humans happen to live." their was an angry growling from above him, "Yeah, sorry. It's a place where humans are _allowed_ to live by kind permission of my client."

He snapped his fingers and pointed upwards. The Doctor and Autumn followed his finger and gazed upwards to see a slobering purple creature with razor sharp teeth.

"What the hell is that?" Autumn wondered.

"You me, that thing's in charge of Satellite Five?" the Doctor asked incredulously.

"That 'thing', as you put it', is in charge of the human race." the man told them and the Doctor looked at him in alarm, "For almost a hundred years, Mankind has been shaped and guided, his knowledge and ambition strictly controlled by its broadcast news. Edited by my superior, your master, and humanities guiding light, the mighty Jagrafess of the Holy Hadrojassic Maxarodenfoe." the Jagrafess roared, "I call him Max."

 _AN: I am so sorry! I just can't seem to get into writing this story anymore, most likely because I more interested in writing my Vampire Diaries and Pokémon Fanfictions, but I'm trying to finish this since I hate it when writers stop writing a story I'm writing and I don't want to do the same._

 _PLEASE REVIEW!_


	24. The Long Game: Floor 500

The Long Game: Floor 500

A few minutes later, the Doctor and Autumn were restrained by metal manacles, "If we create a climate of fear..." the man began, "Then it's easy to keep the borders closed. It's just a matter of empasis. The right word in the right broadcast repeated often enough can destabilize an economy... invent an enemy... change a vote..."

"So, you've basically got an empire of slaves on Earth." Autumn remarked.

"Well, no." the man said, "There's an answer intresting point. Is a slave a slave if he doesn't know he's enslaved."

"Yes." the Doctor and Autumn both answered.

"Oh." the man frowned, "I was hoping for a philosophical debate. Is that all I'm goingn to get? 'Yes'?"

"Yes." the Doctor replied.

The man laughed, "Your no fun."

"Let me out of these manacles, you'll find out how fun I am." the Doctor remarked.

"Oh, he's tough," the man commented, "Isn't he? But, come on. Isn't it a great system? You've got to admire it, just a little bit."

"Nope." Autumn shook her head, "Not even a little bit." she frowned, "You couldn't have hid this, though. People would notice."

"From time to time, someone, yes." he nodded, "But the computer system allows me to see inside their brain... I can see the smallest doubt, and crush it." he made fist and grinned, "And then they just carry on, living their life. Strutting about downstairs and all over the surface of the Earth like they're SO individual." as the man spoke the Doctor spotted Cathica out of the corner of his eye, "When of course, they're not. They're just cattle. In that respect, the Jagrafess hasn't changed a thing."

"But what's in it for you?" Autumn asked, also having spotted Cathica and wanting to distract them, "You're not a Jagrafess, you're human."

"Yeah, well simply being human doesn't pay very well." he replied.

Autumn rolled her eyes, "I should've known." everything seemed to come down to money in the end, Cassandra was going to kill all the guests on Platform One for money, the Slitheen were going to destroy Earth and kill billions of people for it and this man was stunting the human race for it, "But still, you must've had help. You could've done this all by yourself."

"No!" the man agreed, "I represent a consortium of banks. Money prefers a long term investment. Also, the Jagrafess need a little hand to um... install himself."

"No wonder," the Doctor remarked as Cathica caught sight of the Jagrafess, "A creature that size. What's his life span?"

"Three thousand years." the man answered.

"That's one hell of a metabolism generating all that heat." the Doctor commented, "That's why Satellite Five's so hot. You pump it out of the creature, channel it downstairs, Jagrafess stays cool, stays alive, Sattelite Five's one great big life support system."

"But THAT'S why your so dangerous." the man told them, "Knowledge is power, but you remain unknow." he clicked his fingers and the manacles sent an electric shock through them, "Who are you?"

"Leave her alone." the Doctor said, "I'm the Doctor, she's Autumn Skies, we're nothing, we're just wandering."

"Tell me who you are!" the man demanded.

"I just said!" the Doctor exclaimed.

"Yeah, but who do you work for?" he asked, "Who sent you? Who knows about us? Who exactly-" he stopped suddenly and grinned, "Time Lord."

"What?" the Doctor frowned.

"Oh, yes!" the man grinned, "The last of the Time Lords in his travelling machine. Oh, with the last of the Ayries."

"You don't no what you're talking about." the Doctor told him.

"Time travel." the man stated.

"Someone's been telling you lies." the Doctor remarked.

The man just laughed, "I scanned you both. I may not know who you are, but I know _what_ you are. I know the legends behind your species and I have spies everywhere." he clicked his fingers and a projection of the TARDIS materlising appeared, "I know everything about you. And you have infinate knowledge, Doctor. The Human Empire is tiny compared to what you've seen in your T-A-R-D-I-S, TARDIS."

"You'll never get your hands on it." the Doctor glared, "I'll die first."

"Me too." Autumn agreed, while the TARDIS wasn't hers, it had become like home to her, though it would never be like her _actual_ home, nothing could.

"Die all you like." the man shrugged, "I'm sure one of you has the key." he grinned, "Today, WE are the headlines. We can rewrite history. We could prevent mankind from ever developing."

Autumn saw a little flaw in his plan, that apparently no one else did, he would never be able to fly the TARDIS. Not even the Jagrafess could, only Time Lords had the knowledge to fly the TARDIS. And even if he did know, the TARDIS was sentient and it would never let him do the things he wanted.

"And no one's gonna stop you!" the Doctor spat, "Because you've bred a human race that doesn't bother to ask questions. Stupid little slaves, believing every lie. They'll just trot right into the slaughter house if they're told it's made of gold." Cathica, who had been watching, seeemed to come to a decision.

The man's smile fell as alarms started to blare, "What's happening?" he frowned, "Someone's disengaged the safety." he clicked his fingers and the projection of the TARDIS was replaced by one of Cathica with compressed information streaming in her, "Who's that?!"

"Cathica." Autumn smirked.

"And she's thinking." the Doctor remarked, "She's using what she knows!"

"Terminate her access." the man ordered Suki.

"Everything I told her about Satellite Five," the Doctor commented, "The pipes, the filters, she's reversing it! Look at that... It's getting hot."

"I said, terminate!" the man repeated, shoving Suki out of the way and trying to do it himself, "Burn her mind."

"Oh no you don't" Cathica glared on the projection, "You should've promoted me YEARS back."

The screens suddenly exloded and the workers fell to the floor as one of Autum's manacles came loose. The man tried to get the workers to work again as Cathica smiled on the projection.

"She's venting the heat up here." the Doctor remarked, "The Jagrafess needs to stay cool and now it's sitting on top of a volcano." the Jagrafess roared as the Doctor laughed.

"Yes!" the man said to the Jagrafess, "Uh... I'm trying, sir but, I don't know how she did it, it's impossible. A member of staff with an idea-" the Jagrafess roared and the man returened to the computer.

Autumn searched the Doctor's pockets for his sonic as she was free from the mannacles. She pulled it out and used it to unlock the Doctor's mannacles.

"Oi, mate," the Doctor called to the man, "Wanna bank on a certainty? Massive heat in a massive body. Massive bang!" he shrugged the manacles of as bits of flesh started to fall from the ceiling, "See you in the headlines!"

He grabbed Autumn's hand and they through Floor 500, avoiding the huge lumps of snow falling from the ceiling until they reached the spike room, where information was still streaming into Cathica. The Doctor clicked his fingers, stopping the information, and smiled at Cathica.

XXX

Autumn stood by the TARDIS as the Doctor sat with Cathica, saying goodbye, "We're just gonna go." he told her, "I hate tidying up. Too may questions. You'll manage."

"You'll have to stay and explain it," Cathica argued, "No one's gonna belive me."

"Oh, they might start believing a lot of things now." he remarked, "The human race should accelerate. All back to normal." he stood up and smiled at her, "It was nice to meet you."

He walked back to the TARDIS and Autumn held the door open for him. He smiled at her and they walked inside.


	25. The Empty Child: 1941

The Empty Child: 1941

"What's going on?" Autumn asked, running into the console room as the TARDIS shook and shudered.

"It's mauve." the Doctor replied.

Autumn frowned, "The universally recognised colour for danger?"

The Doctor nodded, pointing to the monitor where they could see the object they were following through the vortex, "It's got a very basic flight computer, I've hacked in, slaved the TARDIS. Where it goes, we go."

"That doesn't sound very save." Autumn remarked, "And knowing you, it probably isn't."

"It's totally safe." he told her when part of the console expoloded, "Okay, reasonably. Should have said reasonably there." he frowned at the monitor, "Oh, no, no, no, no, no! It's jumping time tracks, getting away from us."

"What exactly are we chasing?" Autumn wondered.

He shrugged, "No idea."

"Why are we chasing it, then?"

"It's mauve and dangerous. And about thirty seconds from the centre of London."

XXX

The TARDIS appeared behind some bleak looking houses and the Doctor and Autumn stepped out, "Do you know how long we can knock around space without having to bumo into Earth?" the Doctor asked.

"No idea." Autumn replied, "We do end up here a lot, though."

"Must have come down somewhere quite close." the Doctor commented, "With in a mile, anyway. And it can't have been more that a few weeks ago. Maybe a month."

"I hate it when things jump time tracks." Autumn remarked, "What's the plan, then? Are we gonna scan for alien tech?"

"Autumn, it hit the middle of London with a very loud bang." he pointed out, "I'm gonna ask." he showed her the psychic paper.

"Doctor John Smith, Ministry of Astroids." she read off the paper.

"Psychic paper," he commented, "Tells you-"

"Whatever you want it to," Autumn finished, "I know."

They arrived at a door and the Doctor gestured to it, "Door, music, people. What d'you think."

"I think it would be easier if you did a scan for alien tech." she replied as he got out his sonic and started to unlock the door.

"Muuuu-mmy?" Autumn heard a voice call and she frowned, looking for the source, "Muuuu-mmy?"

"Come on if you're coming." the Doctor said as he unlocked the door, "Won't take a minute."

The Doctor walked through the door and Autumn hesitated a moment before she followed him. They walked through a corridoor until they reached a room where people were sat at tables, chattering as a singer sang on a stage.

"For nobody else gave me the thrill," the singer sang, "When I have found I love you still, it had to be you wonderful you... It had to be you."

The crowd clapped as the singer finished the song and the Doctor joined in before he walked onto the stage as Autumn stood on the outskirts, "Excuse me!" he called, "Excuse me!" he reached the microphone, "Could I have everybody's attention just for a mo? Be very quick, eh... Hello!" he waved cheerily, "Eh... might seem like a stupid question, but has anything fallen from the sky recently?" there was a slience before the crowd started laughing, making the Doctor frown in confusion.

Autumn frowned and looked around the room before she caught sight of a poster with the words 'Hitler will send no warning.' written on it and her mouth formed into an 'oh' shape. A small smiled started to form on her face, just becasue she knew why the crowd was laughing didn't mean the Doctor did.

"Sorry, have I said something funny?" the Doctor asked, just making the crowd laugh harder, "It's just, there's this thing I need to find, would've fallen from the sky a couple of days ago." a siren sounded and the crowd started to file out, "Would've landed quite near here... with a very loud..." he finally caught sight of the poster Autumn had and realisation dawned on him, "Bang..." he shook his head.

XXX

The Doctor and Autumn emerged from the party and walked back towards the TARDIS when Autumn caught sight of a black and white cat sitting on a bin. She gasped and took a step back.

"What?" the Doctor glanced at her.

"There's a cat." she told him.

He frowned, "So?"

She crossed her arms over her chest, "I hate cats."

He looked between her and the cat before smiling in slight amusment, "You're scared of cats."

She looked up at him and frowned when she saw that he looked quiet amused, "Are you laughing?"

"No." he shook his head, walking over to cat and picking it up, "I thought that you weren't scared of anything."

It was true, on their adventures she hardly seemed scared at all, even when their lives were in danger. She always seemed so calm that it was weird seeing her so afraid of small, harmless animal.

"I would've said the same thing about you before Van Statten's museum." she remarked, "But everyone's scared of something."

A phone suddenly started ringing and they both frowned, the Doctor putting the cat down, before they turned to face the TARDIS. They walked over to it and the Doctor opened the compartment in the door, revealing an old fashioned phone, "How can you be ringing?" he asked, "What's that about? Ringing? What am I supposed to do with a ringing phone?"

"Don't answer it." a voice called and they span around to see a dark haired girl with pigtails at the end of the alley, "It's not for you."

"And how do you know that?" he asked.

"Cos I do." she replied, "And I'm tellin' ya, don't answer it."

"Well, if you know so much, tell me this; how can it be ringing?" he turned back to the phone, "It's not even a real phone. It's not CONNECTED-"

"She's gone." Autumn cut in.

He paused and saw that the girl had in fact disappeared. He frowned before he turned back to the phone and hesitentally answered it, "Hello? This is the Doctor speaking. How may I help you?"

" _Mummy?_ " a child's voice called from the phone and the Doctor's skeptical grin faded, " _Mummy?"_

"Who is this?" the Doctor asked, "Who's speaking?"

" _Are you my mummy_?" the child wondered.

"Who is this?" the Doctor demanded.

" _Mummy?"_

"How did you RING here?" he asked, "This isn't a real phone, it's not wired up to anything, it's-"

" _Mummy?_ " the child cut in before the line went dead.

The Doctor put the phone back in the TARDIS and frowned as he heard a crashing sound behind him. He grabbed Autumn's hand and they ran towards the sound.

"The planes are coming." they heard a voice say anhd they jumped on top of some bins so they could look over a garden wall. A fat woman was ushering a small boy into a bomb shelter, "Can't you hear them? Into the shelter. None of your nonsense, now MOVE it! Come on, come on, get in there." the fat woman turned to face the house, "Arthur! Arthur! Will you hurry up? Didn't you hear the sirens?"

"Middle of dinner," a fat man remarked as he emerged from the house, "Every night. Bloomin' Germans." he looked at the sky, "Don't you eat?" the Doctor laughed slightly at that.

"I can hear the planes!" the fat woman exclaimed.

"Don't you eat?!" the fat man repeated.

"Oh, keep your voice down, will ya?" the fat woman complained, "There's an air raid!" she pushed him into the shelter and started to follow him down there, "Get in... there's a war on."

"I know there is..."

Once they were inside the shelter the pigtailed girl crept out of the shadows and entered the house, not noticing that the Doctor and Autumn were watching her.


	26. The Empty Child: The Child

The Empty Child: The Child

"Thanks, miss!" the Doctor grinned as he and Autumn sat round a table with a group of kids, the pigtailed girl sitting at the at the head of the table. The children gasped and made to run away.

"It's all right!" the pigtailed girl called, "Everybody stay where you!"

"Good here, innit?" the Doctor remarked, taking a peice a meat before passing the tray on, "Who's got the salt?"

"Back in your seats!" the pigtailed girl said, "They shouldn't be here either."

"So, you lot... what's the story?" the Doctor asked.

"What d'you mean?" one of the kids asked.

"You're homeless, right?" he wondered, "Living rough?"

"Why d'you wanna know that?" another kid asked, "Are you a coppers?"

"Of course we're not coppers." the Doctor shook his head, "What's a copper gonna do with you lot anyway? Arrest you for starving?" the children laughed, the ice broken, "I make it 1941, you lot shouldn't be in London. You should've been evacuated to the country by now."

"I was evacuated." one of them told him, "They sent me to a farm."

"Why did you come back then?" Autumn asked, speaking up for the first time.

"There was a man there..."

"Yeah, same with Ernie." another boy agreed, "Two homes ago."

"Shut up." Ernie said, "It's better on the streets anyway. Better food."

"Yeah." another nodded, "Nancy always gets the best foor for us."

"So, that's what you do is it, Nancy?" the Doctor asked, looking at her.

"What is?" she replied.

"As soon as the sirens go," he remarked, "You find a big fat family meal, still warm on the table with everyone down in the air raid shelter and, bingo! Feeding frenzy for the homeless kids of London Town. Puddings for all! As long as the bombs don't get you."

"Something wrong with that?" Nancy asked.

"No." Autumn sighed, shaking her head, "He loves it."

"It's BRILLIANT." the Doctor laughed, "I'm not sure if it's Marxism in action or a West End musical."

"Why'd you follow me?" Nancy asked, "What d'you want?"

"I want to know how a phone that isn't a phone gets a phone call." he replied, "You seem to be the one to ask."

"I did you a favour." Nancy told him, "I told you not to answer it, that's all I'm telling ya." she stood up and took his plate away from him.

"What've I done wrong?" he asked indignantly.

"You tooke two slices." she replied, "Anything else before you leave?"

"Yes, there is actually." he answered, "Thanks for asking. Something I've been looking for, would've falled from the sky about a month ago, but not a bomb." he took a mini notebooke from his pocket and began drawing a picture, "Not the usual kind anyway. Wouldn't have exploded. Would've just burried itself in the ground somewhere, and it would've looked something like... this." he showed them the drawing and the children just looked confused but Nancy stared at intently.

Suddenly there was a knock at the window and the children gasped, "Mummy?" a child's voice called, "Are you in there, mummy?" the Doctor pulled the curtain back, revealing a child wearing a gas mask, "Mummy?"

"Who was the last one in?" Nancy asked urgently.

"Them." Ernie gestured to the Doctor and Autumn.

"Nah, they came round the back." Nancy shook her head, "Who came in the front?"

"Me." a boy whispered.

"Did you closed the door?" Nancy asked.

"I..." he stuttered.

"Did you close the door?"

"Mummy?" the child called, moving to the front door, "Mummy? Muuuuum-my?"

Nancy rushed into the hall and shut and bolted the door so that child couldn't get in, "What's this, then?" the Doctor asked as he and Autumn walked into the hallway, "It's never easy being the only child left out in the cold, you know."

"I suppose you'd know." Nancy remarked.

"I do actually, yes." he nodded.

"It's not exactly a child." Nancy told them.

"Muuum-my?" the child called and Nancy pushed past the Doctor and Autumn and went back into the dining room.

"Righ, everybody out," she ordered, "Across the back garden and under the fence." they just stared at her, "Now! Go! Move!" they all jumped out of their seats and ran out the door apart from one little girl, "Come on, baby. You've got to go. Okay? It's a game. Just like chasing." the little girl hopped off her seat, "Take your coat, go on." the little girl ran after the other children, "Go!"

The Doctor and Autumn watched as the children ran out of the house, confused, "Mummy?" the child called and they turned to face the door, taking a few steps fowards, "Please let me in, mummy?" the child stuck his hand through the letter box, "Please let me in, mummy."

"Are you okay?" Autumn asked.

"Please let me in." the child repeated.

Nancy suddenly through something at the door and it smashed, making the child withdraw it's hand, "You mustn't let him touch ya!" she yelled.

"Why?" Autumn frowned, "What happens?"

"He'll make you like him." Nancy replied.

"And what's he like?" the Doctor asked.

"I've gotta go." Nancy took a few steps back.

"Nancy, what's he like?" he repeated.

"He's empty." Nancy replied after a pause. The phone ran and the Doctor and Autumn turned to look at it, "It's him. He can make phones ring, he can. Just like with that police box you saw.

The Doctor glanced at the child before he picked up the phone, " _Are you my mummy?"_

Nancy snatched the phone off him and slammed it down as the radio turned on, "Mummy? Please lety me in, mummy." the Doctor turned the tuner when a toy monkey sprang to life and the child spoke out of it, "Mummy? Muuum-my, muum-my..."

"Stay if you want to." Nancy shruuged, following after the children.

"Mummy, mummy, mummy..." the child stuck his hand through the letter box again, "Mummy? Let me in please, mummy..." the Doctor knelt by the door, looking at a scar on the child's hand, "PLEASE let me in."

"Your mummy isn't here." the Doctor told him.

"Are you mummy?"

"No mummies here." the Doctor replied, "None be here but us chickens."

"I'm scared." the child said.

"Why are the children scared of you?" Autumn asked.

"Please let me in, mummy." the child begged, "I'm scared of the bombs."

The Doctor glanced at Autumn, who nodded, before he turned back to the door, "Okay. I'm opening the door now."

The child withdrew his hand from the letter box and the Doctor opened the door but no one was there. The Doctor and Autumn frowned, stepping outside and looking around but there was no sign of the child.

XXX

Nancy stopped walking and glanced over her shoulder to see the Doctor and Autumn standing behind her, "How'd you follow me here?"

"I'm good at following, me." the Doctor replied, "Got the nose for it."

"People can't usuallt follow me if I don't want them to." Nancy remarked.

"My nose had special powers." the Doctor told her.

"Yeah?" she raised an eybrow, "That's why it's uh..."

"What?" he frowned as Autumn started to smile in amusment."

She shook her head, "Nothing."

"What?"

"Nothing!" she repeated, "Do you years have special powers too?"

Autumn laughed as the Doctor stared at her calmly, "What're you trying to say?"

"Goodnight, Mister." she turned away.

"Nancy." Autumn called, making her stop, "There's something coming after you and the other kids. It might look like child but it's not. And it started a month a go." Nancy turned to face her, "The thing we're looking for, that's when it would have fell from the sky. And I know you know what I'm talking about."

"There was a bomb." Nancy sighed, "A bomb that wasn't a bomb. Fell the other end of Limehouse Green Sation."

"Take us there." the Doctor said.

Nancy shook her head, "There's soldiers guarding it, barbed wire... you'll never get through."

"Try me!" he replied.

"You sure you wanna know what's going on in there?" she asked.

He nodded, "We really wanna know."

"Then there's someone you need to talk to first." she told them.

"And who might that be?" he asked.

"The Doctor." she replied and the Doctor and Autumn glanced at each other in confusion.


	27. The Empty Child: Captain Jack Harkness

The Empty Child: Captain Jack Harkness

The Doctor, Autumn and Nancy stood on the outskirts of the bomb sight, looking at it through binoculars, "The bombs under the tarpaulin." Nancy told them, "They put the fence up over night. See that building? The hospital."

"What about it?" the Doctor asked.

"That's where the doctor is." she replied, "You should talk to him."

"For now, I'm more intrested in getting in there." the Doctor remarked.

"Talk to the doctor first." Nancy insisted.

"Why?" Autumn asked, glancing back at her.

"Cos then maybe you won't wanna get inside." Nancy replied.

"Can I ask you a question?" Autumn called after her as she made to leave, "Who did you lose?"

"What?" Nancy frowned.

"I can see it your eyes." she told her, "The sadness." she'd seen it in her own eyes every time she looked in the mirror after she got taken back. She also saw it in the Doctor's eyes, "So, who did you lose?"

"My little brother." she answered, swallowing hard, "Jamie. One night I went out looking for food. Same night that thing fell. I told him not to follow me, told him it was dangerous, but he just... he just didn't like being on his own."

"What happened?" the Doctor asked.

"In the middle of an air raid?" Nancy shot him a look, "What do you THINK happened?"

"Amazing." he commented.

Nancy frowned, "What is?"

"1941." he replied, "Right now, not very far from here, a German war machine is rolling up the map of Europe. Country after country, falling like dominoes. Nothing can stop it. Nothing. Until one, tiny, damp, island says 'no'. 'No'. Not here. A mouse in front of a lion." he looked at Nancy, "You're amazing, the lot of you. Dunno what you do to Hitler, but you frighten the hell out of me. Off you go then... do what you've gotta do. Save the world." he walked down the rest of the steps with Autumn while Nancy walked back up them.

XXX

The Doctor and Autumn entered a ward of the hospital where rows of people were lying on beds, wearing gas masks. They frowned at each other before walking down another hall into another ward with more patients lying in beds, all wearing gas masks.

"You'll find them everywhere." a voice said behind them and the span around to see an old man wearing a Doctor's coat and walking with a stick, "Every bed in every ward. Hundreds of them."

"Yes, we saw." the Doctor replied, "Why are they still wearing gas masks?"

"They're not." the man answered as he sat down, "Who are you?"

"I'm, uh..." he hesitated, "Are you the doctor?"

"Doctor Constantine." he nodded, "And you are?"

"Nancy sent us." the Doctor told him.

"Nancy?" Constantine frowned, "That means you must've been asking about the bomb."

"Yeah." Autumn nodded.

"What do you know about it?" Constantine asked.

"Nothing." the Doctor replied, "Why we were asking. What do you know?"

"Only what it's done."

"These people," the Doctor glanced at the people in the beds, "Were they all caught in the blast?"

"None of them were." Constantine replied before he let out a hacking cough.

"You're very sick." the Doctor remarked.

"Dying I should think," he replied, "I just haven't been able to find the time. Are you a doctor?"

"I have my moments." the Doctor replied.

"Have you examined any of them, yet?" he asked.

"No." the Doctor replied.

"Don't touch the flesh." he advised.

"Which one?" the Doctor wondered.

"ANY one." Constantine replied. The Doctor rose his eybrows, getting out his sonic and running it over the nearest patient, "Conclusions?"

"Massive head trauma," he commented, "Mostly to the left side..." he ran the screwdriver over the chest of the patient, "Partial collapse of the chest cavity, mostly to the right. There's some scarring on the back of the hand and the gas mask seems to be fused to the flesh but I can't see any burns."

"Examine another." Constantine instructed.

The Doctor scanned another body and frowned, turning to Constantine, "This is impossible."

"What's impossble?" Autumn asked.

"Examine another." Constantine repeated before the Doctor could answer.

"This isn't possible!" the Doctor exclaimed after he'd examined another patient.

"No." Constantine agreed.

"They've all got the same injuries!" he remarked.

Autumn frowned, "Exactly the same?" she may not be a doctor but even she knew that was impossible, although life with the Doctor...

"Yes." Constantine nodded.

"Identical, all of them." the Doctor commented, "Rigjt down to the scar on the back of the hand. How did this happen? How did it start?"

"When that bomb dropped, there was just one victim." Constantine told them.

"Dead?" Autumn wondered.

"At first." Constantine nodded, "His injuried were truly dreadful. By the following morining, every doctor and nurse who had treated him, who had touched him, had those exact same injuries. By the morning after that, every patient in the same ward had the same injuries. Within a week, the entire hospital. Psyical injuries, as plague. Can you explain that? What would you say was the cause of death?"

"The head truama." the Doctor replied.

"No."

"Asphyxiation."

"No."

"The collapse of the chest cavity-"

"No."

"What was it then?" Autumn asked.

"There wasn't one." Constantine replied, "They're not dead." he rapped his stick against a bin and all the patients sat up, making the Doctor and Autumn take a step back, "It's all right. They're harmless. They just... sort of, sit there. No hearbeat, no life signs of any kind. They just... don't die."

"And they've just been left here?" the Doctor frowned as the patients layed back down, "Nobody's DOING anything?"

"I try to make them comfortable," Constantine replied, "What else is there?"

"Just you?" the Doctor wondered, "You're the only one here?"

"Before this war began, I was a father and a grandfather." Constantine remarked, "Now I am neither. But I am still a doctor."

"Yeah." the Doctor muttered, "Know the feeling."

Autumn looked at him sympathetically, she may have lost her family, but she knew that the worst lost was that of a child.

"I suspect the plan is to blow up the hospital and blame it on a German bomb." Constantine commented.

"Probably too late." the Doctor remarked.

"No." Constantine replied, "They are isolated cases, but... isolate cases breaking out all over London..." he coughed again and the Doctor took a step towards him, concerned, "Stay back, stay back." he coughed, "Listen to me... top floor. Room 802, that's where they took the first victim, the one from the crash site. And you must find Nancy again."

"Nancy?" the Doctor frowned.

"It was her brother." Constantine told them, "She knows more than she's saying. She won't tell me, but she mi- mi-" he gagged and clutched his neck, "M... mu... mee..." they watched in concern as his speech became slured, "Are... you... my... mum-my?"

They watched in horror as a gasmask emerged from Constantine's mouth and covered his face before his body went limp.

"Hello?" they heard a voice call in an American accent.

They frowned at each other and walked into the coridoor to see a dark haired man walking towards them, "Good evening." the man greeted as he reached them, "Hope I'm not interrupting, Captain Jack Harkeness." he shook both of their hands.

"Autumn Skies." Autumn replied, "This is the Doctor."

"It's a real pleasure to meet you." Jack remarked, "So, should we begin negotiations on the Chula Warship?" he asked, walking away with out waiting for an answer.

The Doctor and Autumn glanced at each other, "Chula?" he frowned.

XXX

"This just isn't possible." Jack remarked as he scanned one of the patients, "How could this happen?"

"What kind of Chula ship landed here?" the Doctor asked.

"What?" Jack frowned.

"You asked if we wanted to start negotiations on the Chula warship." Autumn reminded him, "What kind of warship?"

"Does it matter?" Jack asked, agitated, "It's got nothing to do with this!"

"This started at the bomb sight." the Doctor told him angrily, "It's got EVERYTHING to do with it. What kind of warship?"

"An abulance!" Jack exclaimed, turning on his wrist device to show them a hologram of the warship, "Look. That's what you chased through the Time Vortex. It's space junk. I wanted to kid you it was valuable. It's empty. I made sure of it. Nothing but a shell. I threw it at you. Saw your time travel vheicle, love the retro look by the way, nice pannels, threw you the bait-"

"Bait?" Autumn frowned.

"I wanted to sell it to you and then destroy it before you found out it was junk." he explained, "It was a con. I was conning you, that's what I am, I'm a con man. I thought you were Time Agents but you're not, are you?"

"Nope." Autumn shook her head.

"Ahh... should've know." he remarked, "The way you guys are blending in with the local colour." he looked at their casual clothes, out of place compared to his uniform, "Anyway... whatever's happening here has got NOTHING to do with that ship."

"I don't even know what IS happening." Autumn muttered.

"Human DNA's being rewritten." the Doctor told her, "By an idiot. Some kind of virus. It's converting human beings into these things. But why? What's the point?"

Suddnely all the bodies sat in their bed and mumbled, "Mummy?" repeatedly.

"What's happening?" Autumn asked.

"I don't know." the Doctor replied as the gas-mask people got out of their beds and started to advance on the three of them, "Don't let them touch you."

"Why?" Jack asked, "What happens if they touch us?"

"You're looking at it." the Doctor answered as the gas-mask people backed them agaisnt the wall, still chanting the word 'mummy?'

TO BE CONTINUED...


	28. The Doctor Dances: Go To Your Room

The Doctor Dances: Go To Your Room

"Go to you room." the Doctor ordered the gasmask people that were surrounding him, Autumn and Jack, making them hesitate, "Go to your room!" they cocked their heads to the side, "I mean it! I am very, very angry with you. I am very, VERY cross! Go to your ROOM!" the Doctor pointed violently in a random direction and all the gasmask people turned and walked away meekly, climbing back in their beds. The Doctor sighed in relief, "I'm really glad that worked. Those would've been TERRIBLE last words."

XXX

"How was your con supposed to work?" the Doctor asked Jack a few minutes later.

"Simple enough, really." Jack replied, "Find some harmless piece of space junk... let the nearest Time Agent track it back to Earth. Convince him it's valuable, name a price. When he's 50% up front, oops! A German bomb falls on it, destroys it forever. He never gets to see what he's paid for. Never knows he's been had. I buy a drink with his own money, and we dicuss dumb luck. The perfect self cleaning con."

"Yeah." Autumn rolled her eyes, "Totally perfect."

Autumn didn't see why everyone was obsessed with money, most of the aliens that they met did what they did for money and she didn't understand, sure it got you things, but it ran out in the end and you would just be left with your guilt.

"The London Blitz is great for self cleaners." Jack commented, "Pompeii's nice if you want to make a vacation of it though, but you've got to set your alarm for volcano day." he laughed but stopped when he saw the Doctor and Autumn looking at him, "Getting a hint of disapproval."

"Take a look around the room." the Doctor remarked, "This is what your 'harmless piece of space junk' did."

"It was a burnt out medical transporter," Jack told him, "It was empty."

The Doctor looked at him darkly and walked away.

"Even if it WAS empty." Autumn shook her head, "And this wasn't your fault, conning people isn't exactly good, is it?"

"Autumn." the Doctor called and she rolled her eyes but walked to catch up with him.

"Are we going upstairs?" she asked, remembering that the original gasmask child's room was upstairs.

"I even programmed the flight computer so it wouldn't land on anything living, I harmed no on!" Jack exclaimed, following them, "I don't know what's happening here, but believe me, I had nothing to do with it."

"I'll tell you what's happening." the Doctor span around to face him, "You forgot to set your alarm clock. It's volcano day."

A siren echoed in the distance, "The all clear." Jack remarked.

"I wish." the Doctor commented

XXX

The Doctor popped his head over the banister of a staircase, looking down at Jack, "Have you got a blaster?"

"Sure!" Jack nodded, running up the stairs to stand by a door with the Doctor and Autumn.

"The night your space junk landed, someone was hurt." the Doctor told Jack, "This is where they were taken. Get it open." Jack grinned and blasted the door with his gun, making a square shape hole over the lock, "Sonic blaster, 51st century. Weapon Factories of Villenguard."

"You've been to the factories?" Jack asked.

"Yeah," Autumn replied as the Doctor took the blaster of Jack, "We went there once."

"Well, they're gone now." Jack told them, "Destroyed. The main reactor went critical. Vaporized the lot."

"Like she said, once." the Doctor handed him his blaster back, "There's a banana grove there, now. I like bananas. Bananas are good." he smiled pleasantly at Jack before he and Autumn walked into the room, waiting for jack to follow them.

The Doctor switched the light on, illuminating the room. The room looked as though it had been vandalized as there were a number of broken objects on the wall.

"What d'you think?" the Doctor asked.

"SOMETHING got out of here..." Jack replied.

Autumn rolled her eyes, "Obviously."

"Something powerful." Jack commented, "Angry."

"Powerful and angry." the Doctor agreed.

Jack looked to side and spotted a wall covered in children's drawings, "A child? I suppose this explains 'mummy'."

"It doesn't explain how a child could do this, though." Autumn remarked.

The Doctor pressed a button on a tape recorder and a conversation between the child and Constantine began to play, "Do you know where you are?" Constantine asked on the tape.

"Are you my mummy?" the child asked.

"Are you aware of what's around you?" Constantine wondered, "Can you... see?"

"Are you my mummy?" the child repeated.

"What do you want?" Constantine asked, "Do you know-"

"I want my mummy." the child cut in, "Are you my mummy? Are you my mummy? I want my mummy! Are you my mummy? Are you my mummy? Mummy? Mummy? Mummy?"

"It's like he doesn't know who is mum is." Autumn commented, "He always asks 'are you my mummy?' Why doesn't he know?"

"Mummy?" the child called, "Are you there, mummy? Mummy? Mummy? Please, mummy? Mummy?"

"Can you sense it?" the Doctor asked as he paced around the room.

"Sense what?" Jack wondered.

"Coming out of the walls," he replied, "Can you feel it?"

"Mummy?" the child called.

"Funny little human brains," the Doctor remarked, "How do you get around in those things? There are these children living rough around the bomb site. They come out during air raids looking for food."

"Mummy, please?"

"Suppose they were there when this thing," the Doctor continued, "Whatever it was, landed?"

"It was a med ship." Jack insisted, "It was harmless."

"Could you stop repeating yourself?" Autumn asked, "It's really annoying."

"Suppose one of them was affected, altered?" the Doctor commented.

"I'm here!" the child exclaimed.

"It's afraid." the Doctor muttered, "Terribly afraid, and powerful. It doesn't know it yet, but it will do." he let out a small laugh, "It's got the power of a god, and I just sent it to its room."

"I'm here." the child said as Autumn frowned, hearing a crackling noise, "Can't you see me?"

"Doctor..." Autumn began, almost scared to ask her question, "What's that noise?"

"End of the tape." the Doctor replied, "It ran out about 30 seconds ago."

"I'm here, now." the child called, "Can't you see me?"

"I sent it to its room." the Doctor commented, "THIS is its room."

They span around to see the child standing by the tape recorder, "Are you my mummy?" he cocked his head to the side, "Mummy?"

"Okay..." Jack began, "On my signal... make for the door. NOW!" he violently produces a banana and pointed at the child as the Doctor grinned and pulled out Jack's blaster, blasting a hole in the wall.

"Go!" the Doctor yelled and the three of them ran through the hole, "Now! Don't drop the banana!"

"Why not?!" Jack exclaimed.

"Good source of potassium!" he replied.

"Give me that!" Jack snatched the blaster off him.

"Are you my mummy?" the child asked

Jack pointed the blaster at the and it rebuilt itself, blocking of the child, "Digital rewind." Jack tossed the banana to the Doctor, "Nice switch."

"It's from the Groves of Villengard." the Doctor told him, "I thought it was appropriate."

"There's really a banana grove in the heart of Villengard and you did that?" Jack raised an eyebrow.

"Bananas are good." he said simply when the child started to bang on the wall, "Come on!"

They rushed down the hall and down a flight of stairs when they ran into the gas mask patients. They backtracked only to see that the was gas mask people coming from the other direction as well.

"It's keeping us here so it can get at us." the Doctor remarked as they found themselves back where they started.

"It's controlling them?" Jack asked, pointing his blaster in one direction then the other.

"It IS them." the Doctor corrected, "It's every living thing in this hospital."

"Okay." Jack nodded, "This can function as a sonic blaster, a sonic cannon, and a triple-enfolded sonic disrupter. Doc, Autumn, what you got?"

"An average 21st century gun." Autumn replied, seemingly pulling out from no where.

After the Oxyole debacle she had disguised it with a perception filter because, even if the Oxyole's were being controlled at the time, other species could see it as a threat.

"A sonic, er..." the Doctor hesitated as he pulled out his sonic screwdriver, "Oh, never mind."

"What?" Jack asked.

"It's sonic, okay?" the Doctor replied, "Let's leave it at that."

"Disrupter?" Jack wondered, "Cannon? What?"

"It's sonic!" the Doctor exclaimed, "Totally sonic! I am sonic-ed up!"

"A sonic WHAT?!"

"SCREWDRIVER!" the Doctor exclaimed as the child finally managed to break through the wall.

Autumn rolled her eyes, "Shut up!" she grabbed Jack's wrist an pointed the blaster at the ground, blasting a hole through the ground.

They all fell through the hole into the ward below and Jack used the digital rewind so that they couldn't be followed.

"Could've used a warning..." the Doctor complained, making Autumn roll her eyes.

"Who has a sonic screwdriver?" Jack asked incredulously.

"I do!" the Doctor exclaimed as Autumn looked around for a light switch.

"Who looks at a screwdriver and thinks 'oohoo, this could be a little more sonic'?" Jack wondered.

"What, you've never been bored?" the Doctor asked, indignantly, "Never had a long night? Never had a lot of cabinets to put up?"

Autumn switched the lights on the gas mask patients sat up in their beds and started chanting 'mummy'.

"Door." Jack remarked and they rushed to the door as the patients got out of their beds. Jack tried to use the blaster on the door but it wouldn't work, "Damn it!" he stepped back letting the Doctor open it with his sonic screwdriver, "It's the special features, they really drain the battery." the Doctor opened the door and they all rushed through it, "I was gonna send for another one, but SOMEBODY's gonna blow up the factory."

"Okay, that door should hold it for a bit." the Doctor commented.

"The door?!" Jack asked incredulously, "The WALL didn't stop it!"

"It has gotta find us first." Autumn pointed out.

"Come on, we're not done yet!" the Doctor remarked, "Assets, Assets!"

"Well, I've got a banana," Jack replied, "And at a ping you could put up some shelves."

The Doctor walked towards the window, "Window-"

"Barred, sheer drop outside." Jack told him, "Seven stories."

"And there's no other exits." Autumn added.

"Well, the assets conversation went in a flash, didn't it?" Jack wondered, sitting down in a chair.

"Okay, one, we want to get out of here." the Doctor remarked, "Two, we CAN'T get out of here. Have I missed anything?"

"Well, Jack just disappeared." Autumn told him, plopping herself in the chair that Jack had been sitting in.


	29. The Doctor Dances: The Crash Site

The Doctor Dances: The Crash Site

"So he disapeared." Autumn remarked, "Why is it always the great looking ones who do that?"

"I'm making an effort not to be insulted." the Doctor remarked, a weird, uncomfortable feeling building up on him that he thought was probably jealously. He decided to ignore it, like all other Autumn related feelings.

"I'm joking." she rolled her eyes, "I may be 1/16 human but I they all really annoy me."

There were the select few that he could deal with, like her team back in 2020 and her roommate Cindy, but she suspected that that was because they had helped her when she was at her weakest.

Suddenly, an old radio came to life and Jack's voice came through it, "Autumn? Doctor? Can you hear me?" they both rushed over to the radio, "I'm back on my ship, "Used the emergency teleport. Sorry I couldn't take you." the Doctor held the ripped wires of the radio in confusion, "It's security keyed to my molecular structure. I'm working on it, hang in there."

"How're you speaking to us?" the Doctor asked.

"Om-Com." Jack replied, "I can call anything with a speaker grille.

"Now there's a coincidence." the Doctor remarked.

"What is?" Jack wondered.

"The child can do that as well." Autumn told him, "Which means the child can phone us."

"And I can hear you." the child called through the radio in a singsong voice, "Coming to find you. Coming to fiiiiind you."

"Can you hear that?" Jack asked.

"Loud and Clear." the Doctor replied.

"I'll try and block out the signal." Jack told them, "Least I can do."

"Coming to find you, mummy!" the child called.

"Here." Jack remarked as 'Moonlight Serenade' began to play through the radio, "Something for you kids to enjoy. Don't do anything I wouldn't do."

Autumn rolled her eyes, she was betting that ruled out nothing. She plopped back down into the chair and the Doctor flashed his sonic against the wall by the window, "That's never gonna work." she told him, knowing he was tying to resonate concrete."

"Might as well try." he remarked.

"Knock yourself out." Autumn nodded, "But it would take years for that to work." she eyed him, "You don't think Jack's coming back, do you?"

"I wouldn't bet my life on it." he muttered.

"Me neither." she replied, "But I haven't got much choice right now."

"Why do you trust him?" he asked.

"I don't." she replied, "But he helped us before, we wouldn't have gotten out without his blaster."

"He was saving himself." he remarked.

Autumn cocked her head at him, "Why don't you like him?"

He shrugged, "Who says I don't like him?"

"You're face." she replied, "And your tone of voice. So, why don't you like him?"

The Doctor hesitated, about to make up a lie, when Autumn's phone tinged.

She looked down at it, "It's Cindy." she told him.

They had finally managed to go visit Cindy and they had told her about how Autumn couldn't go home and that she was travelling with the Doctor and looking for her sister.

Cindy had been sad that Autumn wouldn't be around any more an sympathetic when she found out Autumn couldn't go home. But she ultimately happy for Autumn now that she had a purpose, looking for her sister, and seemed to be healing after her loss.

"She says to call her." Autumn frowned before she shrugged, "I'll do it later." she put the phone back in her pocket but froze when she realised that she and the Doctor were in Jack's ship rather than the hospital.

"Sorry about the delay." Jack remarked, "I had to take the nav com offline to override the teleport security."

"You can spend ten minutes overriding your own protocols?" the Doctor raised an eyebrow, "Maybe you should remember whose ship it is."

"Oh, I do." Jack replied, "She was GORGEOUS. Like I told her, be back in fine minutes." he winked at them before ducking into a compartment under the console, making Autumn roll her eyes.

"This is a Chula ship." the Doctor remarked.

"Yeah, just like that medical transporter." Jack agreed, "Only this one IS dangerous."

The Doctor snapped his finger as his hand was instantly surrounded by golden particles.

"Nanogenes." Autumn remarked.

"Sub atomic robots." the Doctor nodded, "There's millions of them in here, see? Burned my hand on the console when we landed, all better now. They activate when the bulk head's sealed. Check you out for damage, fix any physical flaws." he Autumn shared a look, a theory building in both of their heads before the Doctor turned to Jack, "Take us to the crash site. I need to see your space junk."

"As soon as I get the nav com back online." Jack replied, "Make yourself comfortable."

A few minutes later, Autumn was sitting next to Jack, helping him with the ship, "So, I'm guessing you used to be a Time Agent." she remarked, "And something went wrong, so now your conning them."

"If it makes me sound any better, it's not for the money." he replied, "Woke up one day when I was working for them, found they'd stolen two years of my memories. I'd like them back."

Autumn nodded, "I should think so."

"Two years of my life." Jack remarked, "No idea what I did. You and your friend over there don't trust me. And for all I know... you're right not to."

"Maybe." Autumn agreed, "But I don't really trust anyone."

The computer beeped, "Okay, we're good." Jack told them, "Crash site?"

XXX

The Doctor, Autumn and Jack peered over the the barbed wire at the crash site, "There it is." Jack remarked. He spotted a soldier that he knew, "Ay, they've got Algy on duty. Must be important."

"We've gotta get past." the Doctor commented.

"I've got to know Algy quite well since I've been in town." Jack told them, "I'll distract him." he walked away, "Don't wait up."

The Doctor and Autumn glanced at each other before watching as Jack approached Algy and stared to talk to him. Suddenly, Algy fell to his coughing as a gas mask emerged from his mouth.

"Get back!" the Doctor yelled at the other soldiers as he Autumn ran over.

"You men! Stay away!" Jack agreed.

"The effect's become air borne." the Doctor remarked, "Accelerating."

"WE'RE not even safe." Autumn remarked as a siren sounded.

"Ah, here they come again." Jack commented.

"Great." Autumn sighed, "Isn't a bomb going to land HERE?"

"Never mind about that." the Doctor waved her off, "If the the contaminants air borne now, there's hours left."

"For what?" Jack asked.

"Til nothing." the Doctor replied, "Til forever. For the entire human race. And can anyone else hear singing?"

They walked over to a shed and opened the door a crack to see Nancy handcuffed to a table, singing to a gas mask soldier, "...on the tree tops, when the wind blows the cradle will rock..."

The Doctor unlocked her handcuffs and they walk back outside the shed, leaving the sleeping gas mask soldier inside.

They walked over to the Chula ambulance, "You see?" Jack asked, "Just an ambulance."

"That's an ambulance?" Nancy asked incredulously.

"Yeah, it's from another world." Autumn told her, distracted.

"They've been trying to get in." Jack remarked, fiddling with the controls

"Of COURSE they have." the Doctor replied, "They think they've got their hands on Hitler's latest secret weapon." he frowned as Jack started to type in the code, "What're you doing?"

"Well, the sooner you see this thing is empty, the sooner you'll see I had nothing to do with it." Jack remarked when the controls suddenly sparked and an alarm went off, "Didn't happen last time."

"It hadn't crashed last time." the Doctor pointed out, "They're the emergency protocols." a red light started to flash on the ship and the gates and the end of the bomb site started to shake, "Captain, secure those gates!"

"Why?" Jack asked.

"Just do it!" he yelled and Jack ran off as he turned to Nancy, "Nancy, how'd you get in here?"

"I cut the wire." she replied.

"Show Autumn." he ordered, tossing Autumn his sonic, "Setting two thousand four hundred and twenty eight D."

Autumn nodded and rushed off with Nancy to the sight where she'd cut the wire.


	30. The Doctor Dances: Nanogenes

The Doctor Dances: Nanogenes

Autumn knelt down by the wire and flashed the sonic over two ends of it, reattaching it.

"Who are you?" Nancy asked, "Who are any of you?"

"You'd never believe me in a million years." Autumn muttered.

"You just told me that's an ambulance from another world." Nancy pointed out, "There are people running around with gas mask heads calling for their mummies, and the sky's full of Germans dropping bombs on me. Tell me. Do you think there's anything left I couldn't believe?"

"Okay." Autumn nodded, "We're aliens from the future."

"Mad, you are." Nancy commented.

"Knew you wouldn't believe me."

"It's not that." Nancy told her, "All right, you're an alien from the future. I believe ya. Believe anything, me." she looked up at the sky, "But what future?"

Autumn hesitated, rolling her eyes at herself, "Listen, just a few weeks a go I was in this city 50 years from now."

"You were here?" she asked and Autumn nodded, "But... it's not... German?"

"Don't tell anyone I told you, okay?" Autumn instructed, "But the Germans loose and you win."

"We win?" Nancy asked and Autumn nodded, making her laugh at the unbelievably good news.

"Come on!" Autumn stood up and they walked back over to the crash site.

"It's empty." Jack was saying as Autumn and Nancy reached them, "Look at it."

"What do you expect in a Chula medical transporter?" the Doctor asked, "Bandages? Cough drops? Autumn?"

"Nanogenes." she replied.

"It wasn't empty, Captain." the Doctor told Jack, "There was enough nanogenes in there to rebuild a species."

"Oh, God." Jack paled.

"Getting it now, are we?" the Doctor asked, "When the ship crashes, the nanogenes escape. Billions upon billions of them, ready to fix all the cuts and bruises in the whole world. But what they find first is a dead child, probably killed earlier that night and wearing a gas mask. One problem, though, these nanogenes, they're not like the ones on your ship. This lot have never seen a human being before. Don't know what a human being's supposed to look like. All they've got to go on is one little body, and there's not a lot left. But they carry right on. They do what they're programmed to do, they patch it up. Can't tell what's gas mask and what's skull, but they do their best. Then off they fly, off they go, work to be done. Cos you see NOW they THINK they know what people should look like and it's time to fix all the rest. And they won't ever stop. They won't ever, ever stop. The entire Human Race is gonna be torn down and rebuilt in the form of one terrified child looking for its mother, and NOTHING in the world can stop it!"

"I didn't know." Jack remarked but the Doctor just fixed him with a cold stare before he went back to examine the med ship.

"Autumn?" Nancy called, scared, as she saw the gas mask people all lined up at the fence.

"The ship thinks it's under attack." Autumn muttered, "So it's bring the troops here."

"The gas mask people aren't troops, though." Nancy frowned.

"They are now." the Doctor told her, "This is a battle field ambulance. The nanogenes don't just fix you up, you get you ready for the front line. Equip you, programme you."

"That's why the chid is so strong." Autumn explained to Nancy, "That's why it can phone things."

"Why don't they attack?" Jack asked as the gas mask people just stood by the fence.

"Good little soldiers." the Doctor replied, "Waiting for their commander."

"The child?" Jack frowned.

"Jamie." Nancy corrected.

"What?" Jack glanced at her.

"Not 'the child'." she glared at him, "Jamie."

"When is that bomb going to fall?" Autumn asked.

"Any second." Jack replied.

"What's the matter, captain?" the Doctor wondered, "Bit close to the volcano for you."

"He's just a little boy." Nancy commented.

"I know." the Doctor agreed.

"He's just a little boy who wants his mummy." Nancy continued, getting upset.

"I know." the Doctor nodded, "There isn't a little boy born who wouldn't year the world apart to save his mummy. And this little boy can."

"It's my fault." Nancy said, tears appearing in her eyes.

"No it's not." Autumn told her.

"It is." she insisted, "It's all my fault."

The Doctor frowned, "How can it be your-" he stopped suddenly, "Nancy, what age are you? Twenty? Twenty one? Older than you look, yes?"

"Doctor, that bomb." Jack warned, "We've got seconds."

"You can teleport out." Autumn reminded him.

"No you guys." he replied, "The nav com's back online. Gonna take too long to override the protocols."

"Do want you gotta do." she shrugged, "One of us should make it out of this."

Jack hesitated before he made his decision and teleported it out.

"How old were you five years ago?" the Doctor asked Nancy, "Fifteen? Sixteen? Old enough to give birth, anyway." Nancy sobbed and looked away, "He's not your brother, is he? A teenage single mother in 1941. So you hid. You lied." Nancy nodded, "You even lied to him."

The gate swing open and the child stood at the front of the gas mask people, "Are you my mummy?"

"He's gonna keep asking, Nancy." the Doctor pointed out, "He's never gonna stop. Tell him." Nancy didn't reply and the gas mask people started to walk forward, "Nancy... the future of the human race is in your hands. Trust me... and tell him."

Nancy sniffed as the child approached them, "Are you my mummy?" the Doctor gave her a gentle push towards the child, "Are you my mummy? Are you my mummy?"

"Yes." Nancy whispered before her voice grew stronger, "Yes. I AM your mummy."

"Mummy?"

"I'm here." Nancy told him.

"Are you my mummy?" he asked again.

Nancy knelt down in front of him, "I'm here."

"Are you my mummy?"

"Yes." she whispered.

"He doesn't understand." the Doctor remarked, "There's not enough of him left."

"I am you mummy." Nancy told him, "I will always be your mummy. I'm so sorry." she hugged him and the nanogenes surrounded them, "I am so, so sorry."

"Come on, please." the Doctor muttered, "Come on, you CLEVER little nanogenes, figure it out! The mother. She's the mother! There's gotta be enough information, figure it out." Nancy let the child go and the Doctor and Autumn rushed over, "Oh, come. Give me a day like this. Give me this one." he reached for the gas mask and pulled it off, revealing a perfectly ordinary little boy underneath, "Ah ha ha!" the Doctor laughed, picking he boy up and swinging him around, "Welcome back! Twenty years til pop music, you're gonna love it."

"What happened?" Nancy asked in wonder.

"The nanogenes knew you were related." Autumn explained, "It realised that humans weren't supposed to look like that so they changed him back."

"Jamie..." Nancy almost cried with happiness.

"Doctor, that bomb..." Autumn reminded him.

"Taken care of." he replied.

"How?" she asked.

He gestured at Jamie and Nancy, "Psychology."

The bomb started to plumes towards them when it was caught by a bike forcefield and, a moment later, Jack appeared on top of the bomb, "Doctor!"

"Good lad!" the Doctor remarked.

"The bomb's already commenced detonation." Jack told him, "I've put it in stasis but it won't last long."

"Change of plan," the Doctor replied, "Don't need the bomb. Can you get rid of it? Safely as you can?"

Jack nodded, "Goodbye." before he disappeared.

The nanogenes started to flutter round the Doctor's hands, "Software patch." he commented, "Gonna email the upgrade." he through the nanogenes away from and towards the gas mask people as he grinned, "Every body lives, Autumn. Just this once. Everybody lives." the gas mask people got to their feet, now perfectly ordinary people and the Doctor bounded over to Doctor Constantine, "Doctor Constantine. Who never left his patients. Back on your feet, constant doctor! World doesn't wanna get by without you just yet, and I don't blame it one bit." he gestured to all the former gas mask people, "These are your patients. All better, now!"

"Yes, yes..." Constantine agreed, "So it seems. They also seem to be standing around in a disused railway station. Is there any particular reason for that?"

"Yeah, well, you know, cutbacks." the Doctor shrugged, "Listen, whatever was wrong with them in the past, you're probably gonna find that they're cured. Just tell them what a great doctor you are. Don't make a big thing of it. Okay?"

He rushed back over to Autumn and stood on top of the med ship, "Right, you lot!" he called, "Lots to do! Beat the Germans, save the world, don't forget the Welfare Sate!" he jumped of the ship and fiddled with the controls, "Setting this to self destruct, soon as everybody's clear. History says there was an explosion here. Who am I to argue with history?"

"The first in line, usually." Autumn replied but he just grinned at her and she grinned back.

XXX

The Doctor and Autumn entered the TARDIS, the Doctor chattering away, "The nanogenes will clean up the mess and switch themselves off, because I told them to. Nancy and Jamie will go to Doctor Constantine for help, ditto, all in all, all things considered, fantastic!" Autumn rolled her eyes, but she was smiling fondly, "And everybody lives, Autumn! Everybody lives!" he flicked a switch on the console, "I need more days like this."

"Doctor..." Autumn began.

"Go, ask me anything." he cut in, "I'n in FIRE!

"What about Jack?"

XXX

"Come in, then!" Autumn called to Jack as the TARDIS was parked inside. Jack ran up to the TARDIS and walked inside.

"Close the door, will you?" the Doctor asked, "Your ship's about to blow up, there's gonna be a draft." Jack closed the door and steppe further inside as the engines started up.

"Welcome to the TARDIS." Autumn remarked.


	31. Boom Town: Cindy Mercer

Boom Town: Cindy Mercer

Cindy Mercer walked across Rhal Dhal plass towards a blue police box that stood in the middle of it. She hesitentally knocked on the door and waited few moments before Jack answered the door.

"Hello, there." he smirked at her.

"Hi?" she frowned, not sure who he was, "I'm Cindy, who are you?"

"Captain Jack Harkness," Jack replied, "Nice to meet you."

"Yeah, whatever." Cindy shrugged, crossing her arms over her chest, "Where's Autumn?"

"I'm here." Autumn's came from inside the TARDIS before she appeared in doorway of the TARDIS, "Hey!" she grinned and pulled her friends into a hug.

"Hi!" Cindy grinned as pulled out of the hug.

"Come in, come in..." Autumn ushered her inside.

"So, why're you in Cardiff?" Cindy asked her, when the TARDIS suddenly started to shake and shudder, "What's happening?" Cindy yelled, grabbing onto a railing.

"What did you do?" Autumn yelled up to the Doctor where he was doing maintenace work on the TARDIS.

"Nothing!" he yelled back, running over to the controls and trying to figure what was going on, "We're in flight! The TARDIS is taking us somwhere!"

"Where?" Autumn asked

"Who knows?"

After a few moments the TARDIS calmed down, signaling that they had landed.

"Where are we, then?" Autumn asked.

The Doctor looked at the montior, "The exact same place, just 14 years in the past."

Autumn frowned, "Why would the TARDIS take us 14 years into the past?"

"Why don't we find out?" he grinned.

"But didn't you need to be where you were for some reason?" Cindy frowned.

"We needed to refuel." Autumn told her, "And Cardiff's got a rift running through the city-"

"The rift was healed back in 1869-" the Doctor cut in.

"Yes," Autumn nodded, "Because the Gelth were using it as gateway, but a girl called Gwyneth saved the world and closed it."

"But closing a rift always leaves a scar," Jack remarked Cindy frowned, almost understading, but speed of their explanation and the changing narrator confusing her, "And that scar generates energy, harmless to the Human Race-"

"But perfect for the TARDIS," the Doctor finished, "So just park it here for a couple of days right on top of the scar and-"

"Open up the engines," Jack cut in, "Soak up the radiation-"

"Like filling a car up with petrol," Autumn added, seeing Cindy trying to follow along, "And off we go!"

"Into time!" Jack high fived Autumn.

"And space!" they all exclaimed as the Doctor and Autumn high fived.

"Oh, wow." Cindy shook her head at the display before her, "Just... wow."

XXX

The four of them bundled out of the TARDIS, "Should take another twenty-four hours," the Doctor remarked, "Which means we've got time to kill."

"That old lady keeps looking at us." Cindy remarked

"Probably wondering what four people could do inside a small wooden box..." Jack commented, patting the Doctor on the shoulder suggestively.

Cindy rolled her eyes at Jack's remark, before looking around, "So, this is the past..." she said to herself quietly. The other three started to walk of and she frowned, "Hang on a minute, what about the TARDIS, won't it get noticed?"

"Yeah, what's with the police box?" Jack asked, "Why does it look like that."

"You said it was a disguise." Cindy remarked, looking at Autumn.

"It is." Autumn agreed, "It's a cloaking device. It's broken, though."

"It's called a chameleon circuit." the Doctor explained, "The TARDIS is meant to disgiuse itslef wherever it lands, like if this was Ancient Rome, it'd be a statue on a plinth or something. But I landed in the 1960's, it disguised itself as a police box, and the circuit got stuck."

"Why don't you just fix the circuit?" Jack asked.

"I like it!" he responded, "Don't you?"

"It's grown on me." Autumn admitted.

"Yeah, but that's what I mean." Cindy remarked, "There's no real police boxes anymore, so wouldn't someone notice it?"

"Cindy, let me tell you something about the Human Race." the Doctor began, "You put a mysterious blue box slap bang in the middle of town and what do they do?" he put his hands on Cindy's shoulder, "Walk past it. Now stop your nagging, let's go and explore! See why the TARDIS brought us here!"

He grinned and grabbed Autumn's hand, walking away as Jack followed.

XXX

The Doctor, Autumn, Jack and Cindy were in a restraunt, laughing and talking over each other, "I swear," Jack said, "Six feet tall and with TUSKS-"

"You're lying through your teeth!" the Doctor cut in.

"I'd've gone insane!" Cindy exclaimed.

"I mean, it turns out the white things are tusks and I mean TUSKS!" Jack continued, "And it's woken, and it's not happy-"

"How could you not know it was there?" Autumn asked incredulously.

"And we're standing there, fifteen of us, NAKED-"

"Naked?!" Cindy exclaimed.

"And I'm like, oh, no, no, it's got nothing to do with me!" Jack remarked, "And then it roars, and we are running. Oh my God, we are RUNNING! And Brakovitch falls, so I turn to him and I say-"

"I knew we should've turned left!" Cindy grinned, stealing the punchline and making them all roar with hysterical laughter.

"That's my line!" Jack exclaimed.

The Doctor glanced over at and man reading a news paper, his smile fading as he stood up.

"Did you ever get your clothes back?" Cindy asked, none of them having noticed the Doctor getting up.

"No, I just picked him up went right for the ship," Jack replied, "Full throttle, didn't stop until I hit the spacelanes, I was shaking! It was unbelieveable, I'm freaking out and by the time I got there I was fifteen light-years away I was like this!"

The Doctor snatched the news paper off the old man and frowned at the front page, "And I was having such a nice day," he remarked, showing them the front page which had the headline 'New Mayor, New Cardiff' and a picture of Margaret the Slitheen next to it.

XXX

The five of them strode up the steps of town hall and stood in a line, "Acording to intelligence," Jack began, "The target is the last surviving member of the Slitheen family, a criminal sect from the planet Raxacoricofallapatorious, masquerading as a human being, zipped inside a skin shut. Okay, plan of attack, we assume a basic fifty seven/fifty six stratedgy, covering all available exits on the ground floor. Doctor, you go face to face, that'll desiginate Exit One, I'll cover Exit Two, Autumn, You're Exit Three, Cindy Mercer, you take Exit Four. Have you got that?"

"Excuse me." the Doctor frowned, "Who's in charge?"

"Sorry." Jack nodded, "Awaiting orders, sir."

"Right." he began, "Here's the plan." he grinned, "Like he said. Nice plan. Anything else?"

"Present arms." Jack ordered and they all pulled out their phones.

"Ready." they all said.

"Speed dial?" Jack asked.

"Yup." the Doctor replied as Autumn just nodded.

"Ready." Cindy said.

"See ya in hell." Jack gave them a lazy grin and walked off to the right as the Doctor and walked straight ahead and Cindy and Autumn went in opposite directions

XXX

"Hello!" the Doctor grinnned as he walked over to Margaret's secutary, "I've come to see the Lord Mayor."

"Have you got an appointment?" the secutary asked.

"Nope," the Doctor replied, "Just an old friend passing by, bit of a surprise, can't wait to see her face!"

"Well, she's just having a cup of tea." the secrutary told them.

"Go in there and tell her that the Doctor is here to see her." he instructed.

"Dcotor who?" he asked.

"Just the Doctor." he replied

The secutary stood up, "Hold on a tick..." he entered the Mayors office while the Doctor stood there. He heard the sound of a teacup breaking when the secutary reappeared, quite flustered.

"The Lord Mayor says thank you for... for popping by..." he stuttered, "She'd love to have a chat, but, um... she's up to her eyes in paperwork. Perhaps if you could make an appointment for next week...?"

"She's climbing out the window, isn't she?" the Doctor asked.

The secutary nodded, "Yes, she is."

The Doctor nodded smugly and he pushed past him into the office. He dashed across the room and hurried onto the balcony just in time to see Margaret hop onto a scaffolding.

"Slitheen heading North." The Doctor said into his phone.

" _Coming_." he heard Autumn reply.

 _"Over and out._ " Jack remarked.

" _On my way."_ Cindy said.

The secutary ran out on the balcony and started grappling with the Doctor, "Leave the Mayor alone."

As the Doctor tried shake of the secutary, Margaret hopped off the sacffolding.

Margaret ran down the path but hissed as she saw Autumn running her way she turned to see that Jack was running towards her and she quickly ran back the way she came.

"Margaret!" the Doctor called mockingly as he manged to shake the secutary off.

Margaret ran towards the fourth exit as the Doctor, Jack and Autumn convereged and the other end.

"Who was on exit four?!" Jack asked.

"Cindy." Autumn replied as they saw Cindy appear in front of Margaret, ready to catch her when she suddenly disappeard in a flash of blue light.

"She's got teleport!" Jack exclaimed, "That's cheating! Now we're NEVER gonna get her!"

"Don't speak too soon." Autumn remarked as the Doctor held up his sonic.

He pressed the button and Margaret reappeared, running straight towards them. She frowned and quickly changed directions, teleporting again. The Doctor clicked his sonic and the process repeated itself until Margaret came to stop a few feet in front of them, panting.

"I could do this all day." the Doctor commented, as Cindy made her way over to them.

"This is persecution." Maragaret remarked, "Why can't you leave me alone? What did I ever do to you?"

"You tried to kill me and destroy this entire planet." the Doctor reminded her.

She waved him off, "Apart from that."


	32. Boom Town: The Extrapolator

Boom Town: The Extrapolator

The Doctor, Autumn, Jack, Cindy and Margaret entered the exhibition room of the town hall where there was a minature model of the nuclear power station that Margaret was building.

"So, you're a Slitheen," the Doctor remarked, "You're on Earth, you're trapped. Your family gets killed but you teleport out, just in the nick of time. You have no means of escape. What do you do? You build a nuclear power station." he gestured to the model, "But what for?"

"A philanthropic gesture." Margaret replied, making Autumn roll her eyes, did she really expect them to believe that? "I've learnt the error of my ways."

"And it just so happens to be right on top of the rift." the Doctor commented.

"What rift would that be?" Margaret asked, playing dumb.

"A rift in space and time." Jack replied, "If this power station went into meltdown, the entire planet would go schwwwupboom."

"This station is designed to explode the minute it reaches capacity." the Doctor remarked.

"But, wouldn't someone notice?" Cindy asked, "Shouldn't someone be checking this sort of stuff."

"Even if there was, she would have gotten rid of them." Autumn replied.

"We're in CARDIFF." Margaret commented, "London doesn't care! The South Wales coast could fall into the sea and they wouldn't notice... Oh..." she paused, "I sound like a Welshman. God help me, I've gone native."

"But why would you do that?" Cindy frowned, "You'd only kill yourself as well."

"Oh, but you're clever..." the Doctor commented, grabbing the middle section of the modle and flipping it over to reveal a circuit board, "Fantastic."

"Wow." Autumn muttered, her eyebrows raising in surprise.

"Is that a tribophysical waveform macro-kinetic extrapolator?!" Jack asked excitedly.

"Couldn't have put it better myself." the Doctor replied.

"Ohh, GENIUS!" Jack exclaimed, picking it up for a closer looked as the Doctor's attention was caught by a banner on the far wall, "You didn't build this."

"I have my hobies." Margaret responded, "A little tinkering..."

"No," Autumn shook her head, "He meant that you couldn't have built it. It's way beyond you."

"She probably stole it." Cindy remarked.

Margaret shrugged, "It fell into my hands."

"What is it?" Cindy asked.

"It's transport." Jack explained, "You see, the reactor blows, the rift opens, phenomenal cosmic disaster, but THIS thing shrouds you in a forcefield, you have this energy bubble, zzhum, so you're safe. Then you feed it coordinates, stand on top, and ride the concussion all they way out of the solar system."

"And it would've have worked." Margaret commented bitterly, "I would've surfed away from this dead end dump and back to civilisation."

"You would destroy Earth just so you could leave?" Cindy asked incredulously, it was in these moments that she questioned why her team helped aliens as well as defeating them.

Margaret shrugged, "Like stepping on an anthill."

"How'd you think of the name?" the Doctor asked suddenly, staring at the banner.

"What, Blaidd Drwg?" Margaret asked, "It's Welsh."

"I know," he replied, "But how did you think of it?"

"Chose it at random, that's all, I dunno." she responded, "Just sounded good. Does it matter?"

He turned around, his brow furrowed, "Blaidd Drwg."

"What does that mean?" Autumn asked.

"Bad Wolf." the Doctor answered.

Autumn frowned, "But I've heard that a lot recently." Gwyneth had said it to her, a little boy had graffitied it on the TARDIS, Van Satten's helicopter was called Bad Wolf One, there was a channel on Satellite Five called the Bad Wolf channel.

"Everywhere we go." the Doctor muttered, as Autumn felt a sense of forboading fill her, like it had just before the Angel had touched her, "Two words. Following us. Bad Wolf."

"But how is that possible?" Autumn asked.

The Doctor stared into space before he shook his head and grinned, "Nah!" Just a coincidence! Like hearing a word on the radio then hearing it all day. Never mind! Things to do." he clapped his hands, "Magaret, we're gonna take you home."

Autumn frowned, feeling like it really _wasn't_ a coincidence. Twice is a coincidence, three times is a pattern and she had heard the words Bad Wold _four_ times.

"Hold on," Jack frowned, "Isn't that the easy option, like letting her go?"

"They have the death penalty." Margaret told them, enciting a silence, "The family Slitheen was tried in its absence many years ago and found guilty. With not chance of appeal. According to the statutes of government, the moment I return, I am to be executed. What do you make of that, Doctor? Take me home and you take me to my death."

"No my problem." he replied.

XXX

"This is ship is IMPOSSIBLE!" Margaret exclaimed, "It's SUPERB. How do you get the outside around the inside?"

"Like I'd give YOU the secret," the Doctor scoffed, "Yeah."

"I almost feel better about being defeated." Margaret remarked, "We never stood a chance. This is the technology of the Gods."

"Don't worship me," the Doctor replied, "I'd make a very bad God. You wouldn't get a day off, for starters..." he trailed off and turned to Jack who was wiring the extrapolator up to the TARDIS, "Jack, how we doing, big fella?"

"This extrapolator's top of the range." Jack replied, "Where did you get it?"

Oh, I don't know..." Margaret shrugged, "Some airlock sale...?"

"Must've been a great big heist." Jack commented, "It's stacked with power."

"But can we use it for fule?" the Doctor asked.

"It's not compatible..." Jack replied, "But it should knock off about twelve hours. We'll be ready to by morning."

"Then we're stuck here." the Doctor remarked, "Overnight."

"I'M in no hurry..." Margaret told them.

"You've got a prisoner!" Cindy exclaimed, "The police box is really... a police box."

"You're not just police, though." Margaret pointed out, "Since you're taking me to my death, that makes you my executioners. Each and every one of you..."

"Well, none of us has ever killed anyone in cold blood." Cindy commented coldly, not realizing that she was the only one in the room that didn't have blood of her hands, "You deserve this."

"You're very quick to say so." Margaret remarked, "You're vey quick to soak your hands in my blood. Which makes you better than me, how, exactly...? Long night ahead... Let's see who can look me in the eye."

She looked each of the in the eye in turn but none of them could hold her gaze for more than a few seconds.

XXX

Autumn watched Cindy walked away from the TARDIS on the monitor, having gone off to explore the past as this would probably be the only chance she had at time travelling.

"I gather it's not always like this... having to wait." Margaret remarked, "I bet you're always the first to leave, Doctor. Never mind the consequences, off you go. You butchered my family and then ran for the stars, am I right? But not this time. At last, you have consequences... how does it feel?"

"I didn't butcher them." he replied.

"Don't answer back." Jack commented, "That's what she wants."

"I didn't!" the Doctor exclaimed, turning back to Margaret, "What about you? You had an emergancy teleport, you didn't zap them to safety, did you?"

"It only carries one." Margaret replied, "I had to fly without coordinates. I ended up on a skip in the isle of Dogs." the Doctor and Jack sniggered while Autumn just smiled, "It wasn't funny!"

"Sorry." the Doctor said sheepishly, still grinning, "It is a BIT funny!" he and Jack began to laugh and Margaret joined in.

"Do I get a last request?" Margaret wondered.

"That depends on what you want." Autumn replied.

"I grew quite fond of my little human life." Margaret commented, "All those rituals... the brushing of the teeth, and the complicated way they cook things... there's a little restaurant. Just around the bay. It became quite a favourite of mine."

"Is that what you want?" the Doctor asked, "A last meal?"

"Don't I have rights?" she wondered.

"Oh, like she's not gonna try to escape." Jack remarked.

"Except, I could never escape the Doctor, so where's the danger?" she asked bitterly, turning to the Doctor, "But I wonder if you could do it? To sit with a creature you're about to kill and take supper."

"No," Autumn interupted, "He couldn't, but I could. Because I have these." she held up two metal braclets, "We both wear one and if you move more than ten feet away from me you get zapped with ten thousand vaults." she walked down the steps, towards Margaret, "So, Margaret, would like to go to dinner? I'll pay."

"Dinner and bondage..." Margaret smirked, "Works for me."


	33. Boom Town: Mistake?

Boom Town: Mistake?

Autumn and Margaret entered the restaurant and took their seats, picking up a menu each.

"Here we are, out on a girls night out, and you haven't even asked my proper name." Margaret remarked.

"This definitely not a girl's night out." Autumn laughed, shaking her head, "What is your name, though?"

"Blon." she replied, "I am Blon Fel Fotch Passamer Day Slitheen. That's what it'll say on my death certificate."

"I don't like lying, so I won't say it's nice to meet you." Autumn commented, looking at the options on the menu.

"Look... that's where I was living as Margaret." she told Autumn, pointing out the window, "Nice little flat. Over there. On the top. Next to the one with the light on." while Autumn wasn't looking, she opened her ring and poured a powder into her wine, "Two bedrooms... bay side view..." Autumn turned back to the table, "I was rather content. Don't suppose I'll see it again."

"No, you won't." Autumn told her, "Did you know that Ayries can't drink alcohol?" she asked gesturing to the wine Margaret had poured the powder into, "It kills us. So, you just wasted whatever you put in my drink." she smiled cheerily as Margaret scowled, not having known that.

"Tell me then, Autumn," Margaret began, "What do you know of our species?"

"Bits and pieces." she replied.

"Did you know, for example... in extreme cases... when her life is in danger... a female Raxacoricofallapatorian can manufacture a poison dart within her own finger-"

A dart flew out of her finger and Autumn caught it with her lightning reflexes she had perfected to get on the defense team back in 4675, "I do now." she chucked the dart over her shoulder.

"And one more thing... between you and me..." she took a furtive glance around the room and they both leaned in as if Margaret was about to tell her a secret, "As a final resort, the excess poison can be exhaled through the lungs." she breathed a green gas out of her mouth.

"Yes, I did." Autumn nodded, leaning back in her seat, "And did you know that Ayries can't be poisoned by any form of gas?" she smiled and looked back at the menu, "Nothing here looks good."

"Public execution is a slow death." Margaret remarked a few minutes later, "They prepare a thin acetic acid... lower me into the cauldron... and boil me. The acidity is perfectly gauged to strip away the skin. Internal organs fall out into the liquid. And I become soup. And still alive. Still screaming."

"You should have thought about that when you started murdering people." Autumn pointed out.

"Will you stay and watch?" Margaret asked bitterly.

"Probably." she replied.

"The Slitheen's family's huge." Margaret commented, "There's a lot more of us, all scattered off-world. Take me to them. Take me somewhere safe."

"You'll just start killing again." Autumn remarked.

"I promise I won't." she whispered.

"You're begging the wrong person." Autumn sighed, dropping her menu, "The Doctor hates killing, despises it, I don't mind doing it so much. And the Doctor would never let you go, so you have absolutely no chance of me doing it."

Margaret sighed, "I promise you you've changed since we last met, Autumn. There was this girl... just today... young thing. Something of a danger. She was getting to close. I felt the blood lust rising, just as the family taught me, I was going to kill her without a though. And then... I stopped. She's alive somewhere right now, she's walking around this city because I CAN change, I DID change. I know I can't prove it-"

"I believe you." Autumn cut in, "But that doesn't change anything. Even if you have changed, which I don't think you have-"

"I spared her life." Margaret cut in.

"That means nothing." Autumn shook her head, "Once in a blue moon, you'll let someone go."

"Only a killer would know that." Margaret commented, coldly.

Autumn swallowed hard but nodded, "I know."

"And you're right, Autumn..." she continued, "You're absolutely right. Sometimes... you let one go. Let me go."

"No." Autumn replied simply.

"In the family Slitheen, we had no choice." Margaret said, now desperate, almost begging, "I was made to carry out my first kill at thirteen. If I'd refused, my father would have fed me to the Venom Grubs." Autumn frowned as she heard a low rumble, "If I'm a killer, it's because I was born to kill, it's all I know!" Autumn didn't reply, listening to the rumble, "Autumn? Are you even LISTENING to me?"

"Can you hear that?" Autumn asked her.

"I'm begging for my life-!"

"Shh!" Autumn cut in, "Shh!" she peered at the glassed on the tables as they began to shake. The window suddenly smashed and the other diners screamed.

Autumn stood up and ran out of the restaurant with Margaret as people screamed and ran past them, "The handcuffs!" Margaret called, urgently.

Autumn sighed, but pulled off her hand cuff, "I'm not letting you run away!"

"Oh, I'm sticking with the you." she replied, fearfully.

They ran past all the people and reached the Millennium Square and Autumn's eyes widened as a huge bolt of blue light ripped out of the TARDIS roof and shot into the sky.

"It's the rift!" she yelled, "It's opening!"

She pulled Margaret across the Square and ran into the TARDIS where the Doctor and Jack tried to control the TARDIS as it shook and shuddered, "What happened?!" Autumn asked.

"It just went crazy!" Jack replied.

"It's the rift!" the Doctor exclaimed as he ran around the console, "Time and space are ripping apart. The whole city's gonna disappear!"

Cindy suddenly ran into the TARDIS, looking around wildly, "What's going on?!"

"It's the extrapolator!" Jack told them, "I've disconnected it but it's still feeding off the engine! It's USING the TARDIS, I can't stop it!"

"Never mind Cardiff," the Doctor remarked, "It's gonna rip open the planet!"

"What's causing it?!" Autumn wondered.

"Oh, just little old ME!" Margaret said gleefully as she freed her arm of the skin suit and rapped her claw around Autumn's neck, making the Doctor dart forward, "One more move and she snaps like a promise."

The Doctor stopped, his hearts constricting at the danger Autumn was in, "I might've know."

"I've had her bleating all night," Margaret remarked, "Poor baby, now shut it. You," she looked at Jack, "Fly boy, put the extroplator at my feet." Jack hesitated and Margaret tightened her grip around Autumn, making her choke slightly. Jack glanced at the Doctor, who nodded, before he placed the extrapolator in front of her, "Thank you. Just as I planned."

Cindy shook her head, "I thought you needed the nuclear power station."

"Failing that," Margaret replied, "If I were to be... arrested... then anyone capable of tracking me down would have considerable technology of their own. Therefore, they would be captivated by the exstrapolator. Especially a magpie mind like yours, Doctor. So the exstrapolator was programmed to got to Plan B! To lock onto the nearest alien power source and open the rift. And what a power source it found... I'm back on schedule... thanks to you."

"The rift's gonna convulse," Jack commented, "She'll destroy the whole planet."

"And you with it!" Margaret agreed. She pushed Autumn aside, still holding her by the neck, so she could stand on the exstrapolator, "While I ride this board over the crest of the inferno all the way to freedom. Stand back boys... surf's up."

The panel on the TARDIS console in front of Margaret suddenly burst open and a blinding light flooded out.

"Of course, opening the rift means you'll pull this ship apart." the Doctor remarked calmly.

Margaret shrugged, "So sue me."

"It's not just any old power source." he continued, "It's the TARDIS. My TARDIS. The best ship in the Universe."

"It'll make wonderful scrap." Margaret commented.

"What's that light?" Cindy frowned.

"The heart of the TARDIS." the Doctor answered, "This ship's alive. You've opened its soul."

Margaret breathed heavily and stared into the light, "It's... so bright..." she said, dreamily.

"Look at it, Margaret..." the Doctor urged.

"...Beautiful..."

"Look inside. Look at the light."

Margaret relaxed her grip on Autumn and she ran back over to the other side of the console as Margaret stared into the light, a blissful smile spreading across her face. She looked up as the Doctor, "Thank you." she said genuinely before she was engulfed by the light and her skin suit flopped to the ground.

"Don't look," the Doctor ordered, leaping into action, "Stay there, close your eyes!" he pulled down a lever and the panel closed, "Now, Jack, come on, shut it all down. Shut down! Autumn, that panel over there, turn all the switches to the right." Jack and Autumn both rushed to do what he said and the TARDIS slowly returned to normal, "Nicely done. Thank you, all."

"What happened to Margaret?" Autumn asked.

"Must've got burnt up." Jack remarked, "Carried out her own death sentence."

"No." the Doctor shook his head, "I don't think she's dead. She looked into the heart of the TARDIS, and I don't know how strong that is. And the ship's telepathic. Maybe the raw energy can translate all sort of thoughts..." he knelt down by the skin suit, reached inside and pulled out and egg, "Here she is!"

Cindy gaped, "She's an egg!"

"Regressed to her childhood." the Doctor commented.

"She's an egg?" Jack frowned.

"She can start again!" the Doctor remarked, Live her life from scratch. If we take her home, give her to a different family, tell 'em to bring her up properly, she might be all right!"

"Or she could be worse." Jack pointed out.

"That's her choice." the Doctor replied.

"She's an egg." Cindy shook her head, still not over that

XXX

A few minutes later, after they had taken Cindy back to 2020, the Doctor was fiddling with the controls, "We're all powered up." he remarked, "We can leave. Opening the rift filled us up with energy, we can go."

"Next stop, Raxacoricofallapatorius." Jack commented, "Now, you don't often get to say that."

"We'll just stop by and pop her in the hatchery." the Doctor said, "Margaret the Slitheen can liver her life again! A second chance!"

XXX

The Doctor and Autumn stepped back into the TARDIS, Autumn quietly sobbing. They had gone on another adventure to look for her sister and had found one of the people that had gone on the expedition with her and she had told them that her sister was dead

 _Dead._

Autumn was devastated, she couldn't stop crying and the Doctor was trying to comfort her, awkward as he was. He pulled her over to the captain's chair and sat her down, wiping the tears from her face even as new ones replaced them, "Shh." he whispered, "Shh, it's okay."

"She's gone." she whispered, " _They're_ all gone." she sobbed, finally letting the pain of what she'd found out on Platform One hit her, "I'm alone."

"No, you're not." he told her, "I'm here, I'll always be here." she looked up at him and he didn't know what came over him in that second, seriously she was mourning what was he thinking?! But he leaned forward and kissed her gently.

Autumn pulled away roughly and slapped him around the face. She gasped and put her hand to her mouth, shaking her head before she ran out of the TARDIS console room, leaving the Doctor alone.


	34. Bad Wolf: The Games

Bad Wolf: The Games

"What is it?" the Doctor asked, spinning around in a cupboard that he woke up in, "What's happening?" he found a door and fell through it onto the floor.

"Oh, my God!" a blonde woman gasped, running over to him, "I don't BELIEVE it! Why'd they put you in there? They never said you were coming!"

"But what happened?" the Doctor asked, very disorientated as he tried to get to his feet, "I was..."

"Careful now..." the woman helped him to his feet, "Oh!" his legs gave way and he fell flat on his face again, "Oh! Mind yourself! Oh, that's the transmat. Scrambles your head, I was sick for days." he pushed himself to his feet and she helped him stand, "You all right? So! What's your name then, sweetheart?"

"The Doctor, I think." he replied, "I was er... I don't know, what happened? How.."

"You got chosen." the woman told him, grinning.

"Chosen for what?" he asked.

"Your a house mate." she replied, "You're in the house! Isn't that brilliant?"

"That's not fair." a young man remarked from where he sat with a black woman on a purple sofa, "We've got an eviction in five minutes! I've been here for all nine weeks, I've followed all the rules, I haven't had a single warning, and the he comes swanning in."

"If they keep changing the rules, I'm gonna protest, I am." the black woman who was sitting with him told them, "You just watch me, I'm... I'm gonna paint the walls."

"Would the Doctor please come to the Diary Room?" a voice asked.

The Doctor frowned and looked around before he went through a sliver door into a small room with a plush red chair in it. He plonked down in the chair.

"You are live on channel forty-four-thousand." a voice told him, "Please do not swear."

"You have GOT to be kidding me." he remarked.

XXX

Autumn blinked awake in a darkened room inside a beam of light. She looked around blearily, "Where am I?"

"It's all right..." a black man who was crouched next to her told her, "It's the transmat. Does your head in. Get a bit of amnesia. What's your name?"

"Autumn." she replied, "But... how did I get here? Where's the Doctor?"

"Just remember, do what the Android says." the man remarked, "Don't provoke it. The Android's word is law."

"Android?" she frowned, completely confused. Where was she? How did she get there? Where was the Doctor? Where was Jack?

"Positions, everyone!" a voice called out, "Thank you!"

"Come on." the man helped her to her feet, "Hurry up! Steady, steady..."

"Hang on a minute," Autumn began, "What the hell am I doing here?"

"That's enough chat!" the voice exclaimed, "Positions! Final Call!" Autumn looked around seeing six podiums standing in a semi circle with an android standing before them, "Good luck!"

"I don't think I'm supposed to be here..." she remarked, frowning, completely confused.

"Well, it says Autumn on the podium..." the black man pointed out and she glanced up to see that one of the podiums _did_ say Autumn, "Come on!" he dashed off and stood in front of a podium that said 'Roderick'.

Autumn frowned, taking her place behind her podium, wondering what the hell was going on.

"Android activated!" a voice announced and the Android sprang to life, raising its face.

"Welcome to 'The Weakest Link'!" the Android said.

XXX

The Doctor flashed his sonic across a door, "I can't open it."

"It's got a deadlock seal." the blonde woman told him, "Ever since Big Brother Five Hundred and Four when they all walked out..." she followed after him as he walked around the room, looking for other exits, "You MUST remember that."

"What about this?" he asked, gesturing to a mirror.

"Oh, that's exoglass." she replied, "You'd need a nuclear bomb to get through."

"Don't tempt me." he muttered, scanning the edges.

"I know that you're not supposed to talk about the outside world," she began, lowering her voice, "But you must've been watching. Do people like me? Lynda with a Y, not Linda with an I, she got forcibly evicted because she damaged the camera. Am I popular?"

"I don't remember." he replied indifferently.

"Oh, but does that mean I'm nothing? Some people get this far just cos they're insignificant. Doesn't anybody notice me?"

He turned to look at her properly, almost pityingly, "No... you're... you're nice. You're sweet. Everybody thinks you're sweet."

"Oh!" she smiled, "Is that right? Is that what I am? Oh, no one's ever told me that before. Am I sweet? Really?"

"Yeah." he nodded, "Dead sweet!"

"Thank you!" she grinned, touched.

"It's just a wall," the Doctor remarked, looking at one of the windows, "Isn't there supposed to be a garden out there?" he walked over to it and Lynda followed him.

"Don't be daft." she shook her head, "No one's got a garden anymore. Who's got a garden? Don't tell me YOU'VE got a garden!"

"No, I've just got the TARDIS..." he replied, before he suddenly span back around, "I remember."

"That's the amnesia!" Lynda exclaimed, "So what happened? Where did they get you?"

"We'd just found out that Autumn's sister was dead." he muttered, remembering how he'd mistakenly kissed her after and how she'd slapped him, "Then we went to Kyoto, that's right." that trip had been really awkward between him and Autumn. It had been so awkward that even though Jack had noticed it, he _hadn't_ commented on it, "Japan in 1336, and we only just escaped... We were together, we were laughing, and then... there was this light... this white light coming through the walls, and then... I woke up here."

"Yeah, that's the transmat beam." Lynda told him, "That's how they pick the housemates."

"Oh, Lynda with a Y..." he trailed off, walking a few steps, "Sweet little Lynda... It's worse than that. I'm not just a passing traveler. No stupid little transmat gets inside my ship. That beam was fifteen million times more powerful, which means... this isn't just a game. There's something else going on." he stepped closer to the camera, "Well! Here's the latest update from the Big Brother house. I'm getting out. I'm gonna find my friends. And I'm gonna find YOU." he tapped the camera threateningly.

XXX

"17...16...15..." the floor manager counted down, "Thank you people, transmitting in 12...11...10..."

"I need to get out of here..." Autumn remarked but Roderick pushed her back.

"Just shut up and play the game!" Roderick exclaimed.

"Fine!" she shrugged, "I'll just win, then I can look for the Doctor." Roderick glanced at her like she was mad.

"3, and cue!" the floor manger called.

"Let's play 'The Weakest Link'!" the Android said, and the lights came on, "Start the clock. Agorax, the name of which basic food stuff is an anagram of the word 'beard'?"

"Bread." the contest, Agorax, replied.

"Correct." the Android told him, "Fitch, in the Pan Traffic Calendar, which month comes after Hoob?"

"Is it... Clavadoe?" Fitch wondered.

"No, Pandoff." the Android told her, "Autumn, in maths, what is 258 minus 158?"

"One hundred." she replied.

"Correct." the Android nodded, "Roderick-"

"Bank." Roderick cut in.

"Which letter of the alphabet appears in the word 'dangle' but not in the word 'gland'?"

He paused, "E."

"Correct! Colleen, in social security, what D is the name of the payment given to Martian Drones?"

"Default." Colleen replied.

"Correct. Broff, the Great Cobalt Pyramid is built on the remains of which famous Old Earth Institute?"

"T-Touchdown." Broff stuttered.

"No, Torchwood."

Autumn rolled her eyes as Broff looked genuinely distraught, it was just a game.

"Agorax, in language, all five examples of which type of letter appear in the word 'facetious'?"

"Vowels." Agorax answered.

"Correct. Fitch, in biology, which blood cells contain iron, red or white?"

"Um...white." she replied.

"No, red. Autumn, in the holovid series 'Jupiter Rising', the Grexnik is married to whom?"

Autumn shrugged, getting really bored, "No idea."

"No, the correct answer is Lord Drayvole. Roderick, in maths, what is nine squared?"

XXX

"So, Autumn. What do you actually do?" the Android asked a few minutes later.

"I'm just traveling at the moment." she replied.

"Another way of saying 'unemployed'." the Android remarked.

"No." Autumn sighed.

"Have you got a job?" it asked.

"Yes." she replied, the team had said they'd have her back at any time, "I'm just on a break for the moment."

"Why Fitch?" the android wondered, speaking of the fact that Autumn had voted Fitch the weakest link.

"She got quiet a few questions wrong." Autumn answered, glancing at Fitch who was staring at the ground, crying.

"Oh, you'd know all about that." the Android remarked and Autumn rolled her eyes. The only reason she didn't know the answers was because this was obviously years in the future from her time.

"I can't vote for myself, though, can I?" she shrugged as Fitch let out a sob, making her glance at her in concern, "Are you alright?"

"Let me try again," Fitch begged the Android, ignoring Autumn, "It was the lights and everything, I couldn't think."

"In fact, with three answers wrong, Broff was the weakest link in that round," the Android told them, not even acknowledging Fitch's begging, "But, It's the votes that count."

"I'm sorry." Fitch gasped, "Oh, please... oh God, help me!"

She looked around at the other contestants for help but they just looked away while Autumn glanced around in confusion.

"Fitch, you are the weakest link." the Android declared, "Goodbye." the Android's mouth opened and a gun protruded from it before it shot of beam golden light at Fitch. She disappeared and the gun retreated back in the Android's mouth as Autumn gaped.

"And we've gone to the adverts." the floor manager told them, "Back in three minutes..."

"What the hell was that?!" Autumn demanded.

"She was the weakest link, she gets disintegrated." Roderick replied.

"What?!" she exclaimed, unbelieving of the situation.

Roderick rolled his eyes, thinking she didn't know what that meant, "Blasted into atoms."

"I know what it means, you idiot!" she yelled, shaking her head, "This is sick! This is absolutely sick!" she stepped away from her podium, "There's no way I'm pla-"

"I'm not playing!" Broff cut in, whimpering, "I... I can't do it." he leapt away from his podium and made a run for it, "I'm not... please, somebody let me-"

"You are the weakest link." the Android shot at Broff, "Goodbye."

"Don't try to escape." Roderick warned Autumn, "It's play... or die."

XXX

"Doctor, they said ALL the housemates must gather on the sofa." Lynda told him as she sat on the sofa with the two other housemates, Strood and Crosbie, "You've got to."

"Busy getting out, thanks." he replied as he flashed his sonic over a door.

"But of you don't obey, they ALL the housemates get punished." Lynda remarked.

"Well maybe I'll be voted out, then." he commented, grudgingly sitting on the sofa.

"How stupid are you?" Strood scoffed, "You've just joined, you're not eligible."

"Don't try anything clever or we _all_ get it in the neck." Lynda warned.

"Big Brother House, this is Davina Droid." a voice announced and Lynda, Strood and Crosbie all joined hands while the Doctor rolled his eyes, "Crosbie, Lynda and Strood, you have all been nominated for eviction. And the eighth person to be evicted from the Big Brother house is... Crosbie!"

"I'm sorry!" Lynda told Crosbie as she gasped, "Oh, I'm sorry! Sorry!"

"Oh, it should'v been me," Strood remarked, putting an arm around her, "That's not fair... oh, Crosbie love..."

"Crosbie, you have ten seconds to make your farewells, and then we're gonna get you!"

Crosbie, Lynda and Strood all leapt to their feet and rushed to the door, "I won't forget you." Lynda told Crosbie.

"I'm sorry I stole your soap." Crosbie told her.

"Oh, I don't mind," Lynda waved her off, "Honestly." she hugged her.

"Thanks for the food, you're a smashing cook." Strood kissed her cheek and hugged her, "Bless you."

A door slid open, revealing a small narrow room.

"Crosbie, please leave the Big Brother House."

"Bye, then..." Crosbie murmured, sounding scared, "Bye Lynda..."

"Bye..." Lynda replied.

Lynda and Strood made and archway with their arms and Crosbie walked underneath into the small room. She waved at them when the door closed.

"I don't believe it." Lynda remarked, close to tears, "Poor Crosbie."

"It's only a game show, she'll make a fortune on the outside!" the Doctor commented, "Sell her story, release a record, fitness video, all of that... she'll be laughing."

Lynda shook her head, "What d'you mean, 'on the outside'?"

"Here we go..." Strood said.

Strood and Lynda rushed back to the sofa where Crosbie was displayed on the TV.

"Well, what are they waiting for?" the Doctor asked, "Why don't they just let her go?"

"Stop it, it's not funny." Lynda remarked.

"Eviction in... 5... 4... 3... 2... 1!" a bolt of light hit Crosbie and she was disintegrated.

"What was that?" the Doctor asked.

"Disintergrator beam." Strood replied.

"She's being evicted." Lynda told him, "From life."

"Are you INSANE?" the Doctor jumped up and paced before them, "You just step right into the disintegrator? Is it that important, getting your face on the telly? I it worth DYING for?"

"You're talking like we've got a choice!" Lynda exclaimed, standing.

He frowned, "But I thought you had to apply!"

"Don't be so stupid." Strood shook his head, "That's how they played it centuries back."

"You get chosen whether you like it or not!" Lynda remarked, "Everyone on Earth is a potential contestant. The transmat beam picks you out at random. And it's non stop. There are sixty Big Brother houses running all at once."

"How many?" the Doctor asked, "SIXTY?"

"They've had to cut back." Strood commented, "It's not what it was."

"It's a CHARNEL house!" the Doctor exclaimed, "What about the winners? What do they get?"

"They get to live." Lynda answered.

"Is that it?!" he asked.

"Well, isn't that enough?!" Lynda wondered.

The Doctor stared out her a moment before he strode across the room, "Autumn is out there." he remarked, worried for her. She may have been tough but he didn't think she would be able to get out of this by herself, "She got caught in the transmat. She's a contestant. Time I got out." he turned to face Lynda, "That other contestant, Linda with an I, she was forcibly evicted for what?"

"Damaged property..." Lynda replied.

"What like this?" he pointed his sonic at a camera, destroying it.

XXX


	35. Bad Wolf: 200,100

Bad Wolf: 200,100

"You are the weakest link. Goodbye!" the Android shot the beam at Colleen and she was disintegrated.

"Going to the break!" the floor manger told them, "Two minutes on the clock, "Just a reminder, we've got solar flare activity coming up in ten."

"Why did you vote for Colleen?" Autumn asked Roderick, "She didn't get any questions wrong."

"Cos I want to keep you in!" he replied, "You're stupid! You don't even know the Princess Vossaheen's surname. When it comes to the final, I want to be up against you. So that you get disintegrated, and I get a stack load of credits. Courtesy of the Bad Wolf Corporation..."

Autumn tensed, about to give him an piece of her mind, when she paused, "What?" she frowned, "What's the Bad Wolf Corporation?"

"They're in charge." he told her, "They run the Game Station."

"But why are they called Bad Wolf?" she asked.

"I dunno, it's just a name." he shrugged, "It's like an Old Earth... nursery rhyme sort of thing... what does it matter?"

"I keep hearing those words." she remarked, "Everywhere we go." she shook her head, "I knew wasn't a coincidence. Twice is a coincidence, three times is a pattern and this is the fifth time I've heard those words."

"What're you going on about?" Roderick asked impatiently.

"Someone brought me here on purpose." she muttered, "But why would they do that if they just wanted to kill me? They could have trasmatted me to them and shot me on the spot, but they didn't. They want me alive."

XXX

"The Doctor, you've broken the House Rules." Big Brother announced, "Big Brother has no choice but to evict you. You have ten seconds to make your farewells, and then we're gonna get you!"

"That's more like it!" the Doctor leapt up and ran to the door, "Come on then, open up!"

"You're mad!" Lynda exclaimed, rushing to the door after him, "It's like you WANT to die!"

"I reckon he's a plant!" Strood remarked, "He was only brought in to stir things up!"

The door slid open and the Doctor dashed through it into the white room.

"The Doctor, please leave the Big Brother house."

Strood rushed back to the sofa and jumped over the back of it to watch the screen while Lynda watched from the door.

"Come on then, disintegrate me!" the Doctor said, "Come on, what're you waiting for?"

"He is, he's mad." Lynda remarked, "He's bonkers."

"Disintegrate me!" the Doctor exclaimed, folding his arms and grinning as he waited.

"Eviction in 5... 4... 3... 2... 1..."

Lynda screwed her eyes shut but nothing happened.

"Haha!" the Doctor grinned as Lynda opened her eyes in surprise, "I knew it! You see? Someone BROUGHT me into this game. If they wanted me dead, they could've transmatted me into a volcano. They want me alive." he turned to the door on the other end of the small room, "Maybe the security isn't as tight this end." he looked mockingly at the camera, "Are you following this? I'm getting out!" he flashed his sonic and the door swung open as well as the one into the house. Lynda poked her head through and he turned to face her, "Come with me."

"We're not allowed!" Strood reminded her.

"Stay in there, you've got a fifty-fifty chance of disintegration." the Doctor remarked, "Stay with me, I promise I'll get you out alive. Come on!"

"No..." she shook her head, "...I can't, I can't..."

"Lynda, you're sweet." he told her, "From what I've seen of your world, d'you think anyone votes for sweet?" he held his hand out for her.

Lynda hesitated before she grabbed his hand they walked out the door, "Hold on..." the Doctor paused, looking around in surprise, "I've been here before this is Satellite Five!"

A few minutes later, the Doctor opened the door to a side room and they stepped inside before he flashed his sonic against a control panel, "No guards." he remarked, "That makes a change. You'd think a big business like Satellite Five would be armed to the teeth."

They walked out of the room and the Doctor scanned the walls with his sonic.

"No one's called it Satellite Five in ages." Lynda commented, "It's the Game Station now. Hasn't been Satellite Five in about a hundred years."

"A hundred years exactly." the Doctor checked his watch, "It's the year two zero zero/one zero zero. I was here before. Floor 139. Satellite was broadcasting news channels back then... had a bit if trouble upstairs. Nothing too serious. Easy, gave 'em a hand, home in time for tea."

"A hundred years ago?" Lynda asked skeptically as the Doctor placed his hand on a hand pad, trying to open a door, "What, you were here a hundred years ago?"

"Yep!" he nodded, scanning the edges if the door.

"You're looking good on it..." she remarked.

"I moisturize." he replied before he looked down at his sonic, "Funny sorts of readings. All kinds of energy... the place is humming. It's weird. This goes way beyond normal transmissions. What would they need all that power for?"

"I dunno." Lynda shrugged as he tried to open another door, "I think we're the first ever contestants to get outside."

"I had two friends traveling with me." he told her, "They must've got caught in the same transmat. Where would they be?"

"I dunno." she replied, "They could've been allocated anywhere. There's a hundred different games."

"Like what?" he asked, turning to give he his full attention.

"Well, there's ten floors of 'Big Brother'." she told him, "There's a different house behind each of those doors. And then beyond that, there's all sorts of shows. It's non stop. There's um... 'Call My Bluff'... with real guns... 'Countdown', where you've got thirty seconds to stop the bomb going off... 'Ground Force', which is a nasty one... you get turned into compost. Erm...'Wipeout', speaks for itself... oh! And 'Stars In Their Eyes'. Literally, stars in their eyes. If you don't sing, you get blinded."

"And you watch this stuff?" he asked incredulously.

"Everyone does." she shrugged, "How come you don't?"

"Never paid for my license." he replied.

"Oh, my God!" Lynda gasped, "You get executed for that!"

He held up his sonic, "Let them try."

"You keep saying things that don't make sense." she remarked, "But who are you though, Doctor? Really."

"Doesn't matter." he replied.

"Well, it does to me..." she commented, "I've just put my life in your hands."

"I'm just a traveler, wandering past." he told her, examining the lock on another door, "Believe it or not, all I'm after is a quiet life."

"So... if we get out of here, what're you gonna do?" she asked, "Just... wander off again?"

He nodded, "Fast as I can."

"So..." she began tentatively, "I could come with ya."

"Maybe you could." he replied, turning to her.

"I wouldn't get in the way." she told him.

"I wouldn't mind if you did." he commented, "Not a bad idea, Lynda with Y. But first of all, we've gotta concentrate on getting out." he scanned the edges of a door, "And to do that, you've got to know your enemy, who's controlling it, who's in charge of the Satellite now?"

"Hold on..." Lynda ran across the room and pulled down a lever which illuminated the words 'Bad Wolf Corporation', "Your Lords and Masters."

A few minutes later, the Doctor and Lynda emerged onto an observation deck where a dreary Earth was suspended in space outside, "Blimey!" Lynda exclaimed, "I've never seen it for real before! Not... not from orbit. Planet Earth..."

"What's happened to it?" the Doctor asked.

"Well, it's always been like that." Lynda replied, "Ever since I was born. See that there? That's the Great Atlantic Smog Storm. It's been going twenty years. We get newsflashes telling us when it's safe to breathe outside.

"So, the population just sits there?" the Doctor frowned, "Half the world's too fat, half the world's too thin, and you lot just watch telly?"

Lynda nodded, "Ten thousand channels, all beaming down from here."

"The Human Race." the Doctor shook his head, "Brainless sheep. Being fed on a diet of... mind you have they still got that program where three people have to live with a bear?"

"Oh, 'Bear With Me'," Lynda grinned, "I LOVE that one!"

"And me." the Doctor agreed, "The celebrity edition where the bear got in the-"

"Got in the bath!" Lynda finished.

"But it's all gone wrong." he remarked, suddenly serious, "I mean, HISTORY'S gone wrong. Again. This should be the Fourth Great and Bountiful Human Empire, I don't understand. Last time I was here, I put it right."

"No, but that's when it first went wrong." Lynda told him, "A hundred years ago, like you said. All the news channels, they just shut down overnight."

"But that was me." he frowned, "I did that."

"There was nothing left in their place." Lynda continued, "No information. The whole planet just froze. The government, the economy, they collapsed... that was the start of it. One hundred years of hell."

"Oh, my..." he stared at the Earth, stunned, "I made this world."

XXX

Agorax screamed as the Android shot him and he was disintegrated, "That leaves Autumn and Roderick, you're going head to head... let's play 'The Weakest Link'."

"Right, that's the end of tactical voting..." Roderick remarked to Autumn without looking at her, "You're on your own now."

"No, I'm not." she muttered to herself.

The Doctor was out there somewhere and he would find her. He would save her. She knew he would. He _always_ would.

XXX

"Hey, handsome!" Jack grinned as he walked onto the observation deck where the Doctor and Lynda were, "Good to see ya! Any sign of Autumn?"

"Can't you track her down?" the Doctor asked as he fiddled with a computer.

"She must still be inside the games." Jack replied, "All the rooms are shielded."

"If we can just get inside this computer..." the Doctor frowned, "She's GOT to be here somewhere."

"Well, you'd better hurry up." Jack remarked, "These games don't have a happy ending."

"Do you think I don't know that?" the Doctor snapped.

He didn't need to be reminded of the danger Autumn was in, it had been all he could think about since he'd found out about the disintergrator.

Jack put his hands up in surrender and handed the Doctor his wrist device, "There you go. Patch that in. It's programmed to find her."

"Thanks." the Doctor replied.

"Hey there!" Jack shook Lynda's hand.

"Hello!" Lynda smiled.

"Captain Jack Harkness." he introduced.

"Lynda Moss." she replied.

"Nice to meet you, Lynda Moss!" Jack grinned.

"D'you mind flirting outside?" the Doctor complained.

"I was just saying hello!" Jack exclaimed indignantly.

"For you, that's flirting." the Doctor remarked.

"I'm not complaining." Lynda commented.

Jack kissed her hand, "Which is a good idea."

"Oh!" Lynda laughed.

"It's not compatible." the Doctor remarked, frustrated as the computer bleeped, "This stupid system doesn't make sense." he tossed Jack's wrist device to Lynda and wrenched the front of the computer away with Jack's help before snatching the wrist device back off Lynda, "This place should be a basic broadcaster. The systems are twice as complicated. It's more than just television... this station's transmitting something else."

"Like what?" Jack asked.

"I don't know." he replied, "This whole Bad Wolf thing's tied up with me. Someone's manipulating my entire life. It's some sort of trap and Autumn is stuck inside it."

XXX

The head to head was under way, Roderick having answered his first question correctly and Autumn being asked hers.

"Autumn, in geography, the Grand Central Ravine is named after which Ancient Britain City?"

Autumn swallowed hard, "Cardiff?" she guessed. It was the only city she knew that was in Britain, she _thought_ it was in Britain anyway, beside London, because she had been there with the Doctor and she was pretty sure that he had said it was in Britain.

"No, the correct answer is Sheffield." the Android told her and she swallowed hard again. Not such a good start.

Roderick 1 - Autumn 0.

XXX

"Found her!" the Doctor exclaimed as the wrist device beeped, "Floor 407."

"Oh, my God!" Lynda gasped, "She's with the Android! You've gotta get her out of there!"

XXX

"Roderick, in literature, the author of 'Lucky' was Jackie who?"

"Stewart." Roderick guessed.

"No, the correct answer is Collins." it told him, moving onto Autumn, "Autumn, the oldest inhabitant of the Isop Galaxy is the Face of what?"

"The Face of Boe." she replied, sighing in relief because she knew that that was right.

"That is the correct answer."

Roderick 1 - Autumn 1.

XXX

The Doctor, Jack and Lynda stood in a lift, impatiently waiting for it to reach Floor 407.

"Come on..." the Doctor muttered, "Come on...!"

XXX

"Roderick, in history, who was the President of the Red Velvets?" the Android asked.

"Hoshbin Frane." he replied.

"That is the correct answer."

Roderick 2 - Autumn 1.

"Autumn, in food, the dish Gaffabeque originated on which planet?"

Autumn sighed, shaking her head; she didn't have a clue, "Jupiter."

"No, the correct answer is Lucifer."

Roderick 2 - Autumn 1

XXX

The Doctor shifted impatiently in the lift.

XXX

"Roderick, which measurement of length is said to have been defined by the Emperor Jate as the distance from his nose to his fingertip?"

"Would that be a goffle?" Roderick wondered.

"No." the Android replied, "The correct answer is a paab." it turned to Autumn, "Autumn, in fashion, Stella Pok Baint is famous for what?"

"Dresses." she guessed randomly, having no idea.

"No. The correct answer is hats."

Roderick 2 - Autumn 1

And there was just one question left for each of them.

XXX


	36. Bad Wolf: Death?

Bad Wolf: Death?

The Doctor, Jack and Lynda ran out of the lift onto Floor 407 where they could hear the Android's voice, "Roderick, in physics, who discovered the Fifteen-Dash-Ten Barric Fields?"

"Game Room Six," the Doctor said urgently, "Which one is it?!"

"Over here!" Lynda told him.

XXX

"San... Hazeldine." Roderick guessed.

"No." the Android replied.

XXX

The Doctor whipped out his sonic and flashed it against the door.

"... the correct answer is San Chen." the Android continued.

"Stand back," Jack said, "Let me blast it open."

"Can't," the Doctor replied, "It's made of Hydra Combination."

XXX

"Autumn, in history, which Icelandic city hosted Murder Spree Twenty?"

"Reykjavik?" she guessed.

"No, the correct answer is Pola Ventura."

"Oh, my God!" Roderick grinned as the lights came on, realizing he'd won, "I've done it!" he looked at Autumn, "You've lost!"

Autumn glanced at the ground, this was it then, the end of the line. Not the way she expected but not the worst way to go. At least she could be with her family now.

XXX

"Come on," the Doctor muttered as his sonic whirred, "Come on, Come on..."

XXX

"Roderick, you are the strongest link," the Android announced, "You will be transported home with one thousand six hundred credits."

"Oh, thank you," Roderick grinned, "Thank you so much."

Autumn swallowed hard, knowing what was coming next.

"Autumn!" the Doctor shouted and she turned to see him, Jack and Lynda bursting through the doors. A relieved smile bloomed on Autumn's face.

"Autumn, you leave this life with nothing-"

"Stop this game!" Jack ordered.

"I order you to stop this game!" the Doctor exclaimed.

"We're live on air!" the floor manger shouted.

The Doctor ran across the room towards Autumn and she began running towards him.

"You are the weakest link." the Android declared, turning her head and fireing at Autumn as she ran, hitting her in the back, disintegrating her mere feet away from the Doctor.

"What the hell did you do to her?" Jack demanded.

The Doctor crouched down in front of the pile of dust that used to be Autumn, ignoring everything around him. She was gone. She was gone _again_. But this was much worse than Van Statten's. The obvious reason being that she wasn't really dead then, but she was now. The other reason being that he knew how he felt about her. He knew he loved her... but she would never know.

He hadn't wanted to tell her because he knew it would just make things awkward between them, like the kiss had, but now he wished he had because now she would never know how important she was to him.

"Back off!" Jack yelled, brandishing his gun.

"I need security and I need here right now!" the floor manger exclaimed, "It's this lot..."

"Don't you touch him!" Jack shouted as a security guard came up behind the Doctor, "Leave him alone!" the security guard pulled the Doctor his feet, the Doctor having lost the will to resist, "You killed her! Your stupid freaking game show killed her."

The Doctor stared at the pile of ashes on the ground, a tear glistening in his eye, as the voices around him faded, "Sir, I'm arresting you under Private Legislation Sixteen of the Game Station Syndicate." the security guard told him, but the Doctor could barely hear him, lost in his grief.

XXX

The Doctor was slammed against a gate as he was searched. The security guard pulled the sonic screwdriver out of his pocket and held it out in front of him, "Can you tell us the purpose of this device, sir?"

The Doctor didn't reply just stared straight ahead.

XXX

The Doctor, Jack and Lynda sat on a bench in a prison cell as they were interrogated, "Can you tell us how you got on board?"

"Just leave him alone-" Lynda began but the security guard grabbed her chin roughly, silencing her, "I'm asking HIM." he released her and turned to the Doctor, "Sir? Can you tell us who you are?"

XXX

The Doctor stood in front of a wall having a mugshot taken. The camera flashed and he turned to side, staring forward blankly as it flashed twice more.

XXX

"You will be taken from this place to the Lunar Colony," the security guard told the Doctor, Jack and Lynda as they sat in the prison cell, "There to be held without trial, you may not appeal against this sentence. Is that understood?"

None of them responded so the security guard turned to the gate and opened it.

The Doctor turned to Jack, "Let's do it."

The three of them leapt to their feet and Jack punched his way through the gate, tossing one of the guards to the side as the Doctor threw another against the wall. They grabbed all of the weapons and walked away as an alarm came on.

XXX

The Doctor, Jack and Lynda piled into the lift.

"Floor 500." the Doctor muttered.

He grabbed a huge gun and released the safety, his face dark as the lift zoomed upwards.

A few minutes later, the doors opened and the three of them walked out onto Floor 500 as all the staff span around to face them.

"Okay!" Jack called, "Move away from the desk! Nobody try anything clever. Everybody clear!" the staff scattered as the Doctor strode towards a woman that was strapped up to a bunch of wires at the front of the room, "Stand to the sides. And _stay_ there."

"Who's in charge of this place?" the Doctor asked, brandishing his gun at the woman, "Who's in charge of this place?"

"...18... 19... 20..." the woman muttered.

"This Satellite's more than a Game Station." he remarked.

"79..." she murmured.

"Who killed Autumn Skies?" he demanded.

"All staff are reminded that solar flares-" the woman began.

"I want an answer!" the Doctor cut in.

"...in delta point one." she continued as though he hadn't spoken.

"She can't reply." one of the staff, a male programmer, told him and the Doctor span around to face him, "Don't shoot!"

"Oh, don't be so thick." the Doctor rolled his eyes, "Like I was ever gonna shoot." he tossed the gun to the programmer and turned to Jack, "Captain, we've got more guards on the way up. Secure the exits."

Jack nodded, "Yes, sir!"

The Doctor turned back to the male programmer, "You, what were you saying?"

"But... I've got your gun." he pointed out.

"Okay, so shoot me." he replied, "Why can't she answer?"

"She's, um..." the programmer glanced down at the gun, "Can I put this down?"

"If you want, just hurry up." the Doctor replied impatiently.

"Thanks." the programmer said, putting the gun down, "Sorry. Um... the Controller is linked to the transmissions. The entire output goes through her brain, you're not a member of staff so she doesn't recognize your existence."

"What's her name?" the Doctor asked, looking at the Controller.

"I don't know." the male programmer replied, "She was installed when she was five years old. That's the only life she's ever known."

"Door's sealed." Jack told the Doctor, "We should be safe for about ten minutes."

"Keep an eye on 'em." the Doctor replied.

"But that stuff you were saying about something going on with the Game Station, I think you're right." the male programmer remarked, "Unauthorized transmats... it's been going on for years."

"Show me." the Doctor ordered.

"You're not allowed in there!" another member of staff, a female programmer told Jack as he tried to get into another room, "Archive Six is out of bounds!"

Jack held up his two guns, "Do I look like and out of bounds sort of guy?" he placed his hand on a pad beside the door and walked inside.

"Solar flare activity at delta point zero..." the Controller muttered.

"If you're not holding us hostage, then open the door and let us out." the female programmer commented, "The staff are terrified."

"That's the same staff who execute hundreds of contestants every day-" the Doctor pointed out.

"That's not our fault," she replied, "We're just doing our jobs."

"And with that sentence, you just lost the right to even talk to me." the Doctor remarked, "Now back off!"

One of the screens suddenly turned to static and the lights flickered off.

"That's just the solar flares." the male programmer told him, "They interfere with the broadcast signal, so this place automatically powers down. Planet Earth gets a few repeats. It's all quite normal."

"Doctor..." the Controller called quietly.

"Doctor?" the female programmer called, noticing that he hadn't heard the Controller.

"Whatever it is, you can wait." the Doctor replied.

"I think she wants you." the female programmer remarked and he span around to face the Controller.

"Doctor..." she murmured and he hurried over to her, "Doctor...? Where's the Doctor?"

"I'm here." the Doctor told her.

"Can't see." she muttered, "I'm blind. So blind. All my life, blind. All I can see is numbers, but I saw you."

"What do you want?" he asked.

"Solar flares hiding me." she replied, "They can't hear me, my... my masters, they always listen but they can't hear me now. The sun... the sun is so bright..."

"Who are your masters?" he wondered.

"They wired my head, their name is forbidden." she told him, "They control my thoughts, my masters... my masters, I had to be careful. They monitor the transmissions but they don't watch the programs. I could hide you inside the games."

"My friend died inside your games." he remarked coldly.

"Doesn't matter." she replied.

He glared at her, "Don't you DARE tell me that."

"They've been hiding." she told him, "My masters, hiding in the dark space, watching and shaping the Earth... so, so, so many years... they've always been there. Guiding humanity, hundreds and hundreds of years-"

"Who are they?" the Doctor cut in.

"They wait." she replied, "They plan and grow in numbers, they're strong now. So strong, my masters-"

"Who are they?" he asked again.

"But they speak of you." she suddenly looked right at him, "My masters, they fear the Doctor."

"Tell me!" he stepped forward, "Who are they?"

The Controller suddenly gasped as the power came back on, "20... 21... 22..."

"When's the next solar flare?" the Doctor asked the male programmer.

"Two years time." he replied.

"Fat lot of good that is." the Doctor remarked.

"Found the TARDIS." Jack said, emerging from Archive Six.

"We're not leaving now." the Doctor told him.

"No." Jack agreed, "But the TARDIS worked it out." he pushed the male programmer out of his chair, "You'll wanna watch this." the Doctor turned to watch, "Lynda, could you stand over there for me please?"

"I.. I just wanna go home." Lynda stuttered.

"It'll only take a second." he promised, "Could you stand in that spot quick as you can?" Lynda walked over to the spot Jack indicated to, "Everybody watching? Okay... three, two, one..." he pressed a button a disintragtor beam shot down from the ceiling and hit Lynda.

"But you killed her!" the Doctor exclaimed, shocked.

"Oh, d'you think?" Jack asked calmly.

He pressed the button again and Lynda reappeared next to the Doctor, slightly dazed.

"...What the hell was that?" she asked as the Doctor turned to Jack for an explanation.

"It's a transmat beam." Jack told him, "Not a disintergrator, a secondary transmat system." Jack started to walk towards the Doctor as his eyes shined with realization, "People don't get killed in the games! They get transported across space! Doctor, Autumn is still alive!"

The Doctor laughed in joy and they threw their arms around each other, so beyond relived.

She was alive!

XXX

Autumn slowly blinked awake and looked around her surroundings, confused before her eyes widened at the sight she saw.

"No..." she muttered, shaking her head in disbelief. She scrambled backwards staring in horror at the sight before her, "Impossible! You're all dead! He killed you all!"

XXX

The Doctor dashed from computer to computer, "She's out there somewhere!"

"Doctor!" the Controller called, struggling to betray her masters and speak to the Doctor, "Co-ordinates five point six point one...

The Doctor started to type the co-ordinates in frantically, "Don't! The solar flare's gone, they'll hear you!"

She cried out in pain, "Point four three four... no my masters, no! I defy you! Stigma seven seven..."

She screamed and the Doctor span around to see her disappear.

"They took her." he remarked, sadly.

A few minutes later Jack was sat at a computer terminal, the others all gathered around him.

"Look, use that." the male programmer handed him a disk, "It might contain the final numbers. I kept a log of all the unscheduled transmissions."

"Nice..." Jack remarked, peering up at him, "Thanks..." he held out his hand and eyed him up, "Captain Jack Harkness, by the way..."

The programmer shook his hand, "I'm Davitch Pavale."

"Nice to meet you, Davitch Pavale..." Jack said flirtatiously.

"There's a time and a place." the Doctor reminded him.

"Are you saying this entire set-up's been a disguise all along?" the female programmer asked.

"Going way back." the Doctor nodded, "Installing the Jagrafess a hundred years ago. Someone's been playing a long game. Controlling the Human Race from behind the scenes for generations."

Jack handed him a small device, "Click on this." the Doctor pointed the device upward and clicked it. A projection of an empty expanse of space appeared above their heads, "The transmat delivers to that point. Right on the edge of the solar system."

"There's nothing there." the female programmer pointed out.

"It looks like nothing." the Doctor corrected, "'Cause that's what this Satellite does. underneath the transmission, there's another signal..."

"Doing what?" Davitch asked.

"Hiding whatever's out there." the Doctor replied, "Hiding it from sonar radar, scanner... there's something sitting right on top of planet Earth... but it's completely invisible. If I cancel the signal..." he pressed a few buttons and looked back up at the projection to see a spaceship revolving slowly. The projection zoomed out to reveal hundreds of spaceships and the Doctor stared at them with wide eyes, stunned.

"That's impossible." Jack remarked, "I know those ships... they were destroyed."

"Obviously, they survived." the Doctor said quietly.

"Who did?" Lynda asked, "Who are they?"

"Two hundred ships." the Doctor commented fearfully, "More than two thousand on board each one. That's just about half a million of them."

"Half a million what?" Davitch wondered.

"Daleks."

XXX

From her position on the floor, Autumn stared at all the Daleks in the spaceship with wide eyes, but they couldn't be alive, they couldn't! Autumn swallowed hard as she thought about the last time they had encountered a Dalek. There had only been one then and they could barely stop it, now there was thousands...

"Alert!" a Dalek cried, "Alert! We are detected!"

"It is the Doctor!" another reported, "He has located us! Open communications channel!"

A Dalek span around to face Autumn, "The female will stand. Stand!"

Autumn slowly stood up when a projection of the Doctor, Jack and the two programmers appeared in front of her and the Daleks.

XXX

The Doctor stared at the projection of Autumn surrounded by Daleks, a grim expression on his face as his hearts raced in worry. Any wrong move and they would exterminate her without hesitation.

"I will speak to the Doctor." a Dalek demanded.

"Oh, will you?" he asked mockingly, "That's nice. Hello!" he waved at them, his fake grin fading with every second he spoke with the creatures.

"The Dalek Stratagem nears completion." the Dalek told him, "The fleet is almost ready. You will not intervene."

"Oh, really? Why's that then?"

"We have your associate." the Dalek told him, "You will obey or she will be exterminated."

The Doctor glanced at Autumn for a moment before looking back at the Dalek, "No."

Jack and the two programmers turned to stare at him in disbelief but Autumn stayed calm, knowing that he must have a plan.

"Explain yourself." the Dalek demanded, not having expected that answer.

"I said 'no'." he repeated.

"What is the meaning of this negative?"

"It means 'no'."

"But she will be destroyed."

"No!" he yelled, standing up, "'Cos this is what I'm gonna do, I'm gonna rescue her." Jack and programmers looked at him in awe, while Autumn stared at him, the same feeling she had in Downing Street when he couldn't decide between the Earth and her bubbling inside her, "I'm gonna save Autumn Skies from the middle of the Dalek Fleet, and then I'm gonna save the Earth, and then just to finish off, I'm gonna wipe every last STINKING Dalek out of the sky!"

"But you have no weapons!" the Dalek pointed out, "No defenses! No plan!"

"Yeah." he agreed, "And doesn't that scare you to death?" he turned to Autumn, "Autumn?"

"Yeah?" she replied.

"I'm coming to get you." he told her.

"I know." she murmured just before he clicked the device and turned the projection off.

XXX

"The Doctor is initiating hostile action!" a Dalek cried.

"The Stratagem must advance." another remarked, "Begin the invasion of Earth!"

"The Doctor will be exterminated!" a Dalek declared.

"Exterminate!" the other Daleks began to chant.

Autumn stared around the spaceship in disbelief and slight fear as the Daleks continued to chant for the death of their most hated enemy.

TO BE CONTINUED...


	37. The Parting of the ways: The Delta Wave

The Parting of the Ways: The Delta Wave

Autumn stared around the spaceship as the Daleks started to panic.

"You know the Doctor!" one of them rounded on her, "You understand him! You will predict his actions!"

Autumn glared, "No, I won't." the Dalek glided dangerously towards her but Autumn's glare didn't falter, "I would never help you!"

"Predict!" the Dalek demanded, slightly hysterical, "Predict! Predict!"

"TARDIS detected." another Dalek reported, "In flight."

"Launch missiles!" the other Dalek ordered, "Exterminate!"

Autumn's eyes widened in horror, the TARDIS didn't have any defenses, if the Daleks launched missiles at it they would destroy it along with the Doctor. She swallowed hard and prayed that the Doctor had prepared for this.

XXX

Jack and the Doctor worked frantically on the controls of the TARDIS as it shook and shuddered.

"We've got incoming!" Jack exclaimed, still frantically pressing buttons and pulling levers, "The extrapolator's working. We've got a fully functional force field. Try saying that when you're drunk..."

"And for my next trick..." the Doctor muttered.

XXX

Autumn looked up as she heard the sound of the TARDIS as it materialized around her and a Dalek.

"Autumn!" the Doctor yelled, "Get down!"

Autumn immediately threw herself to the ground as the Dalek swiveled it's eyestalk around, "Exterminate!" it cried, firing at Jack, who deflected it back at the Dalek with a very large gun. The Dalek exploded with a scream and smoke billowed from the remains as the three of them sighed in relief.

The Doctor walked over to Autumn and they wrapped their arms around each other in a tight embrace.

"You saved me." Autumn remarked as they hugged, "You always save me."

"And I always will." he replied as they pulled away.

They looked at each other a moment, everything else fading to the background. Autumn swallowed hard as she felt that feeling that she often felt when she looked at the Doctor, like... she was falling.

She swallowed again and looked away, breaking the moment.

"You all right?" the Doctor asked.

Autumn shrugged, she was okay physically but she was also slightly terrified, "You?"

"Not bad." he replied, "Been better!"

He walked over to remains of the Dalek as Jack approached Autumn, "Hey, don't I get a hug?"

Autumn heaved a fake sigh, "If I have to."

She didn't really hug people, only her family and, of course, the Doctor and her team back in 2020, but Jack had become a good friend to her and the Doctor and she had almost been disintegrated so she didn't mind.

"I was talking to him." Jack joked and Autumn rolled her eyes before they pulled each other into a hug, "Welcome home!"

"Thought it was the end, then." Autumn remarked, having really thought for a while before she got 'disintegrated' that she was going to die.

"Oh, you were lucky." Jack told her, "It was just a one shot wonder. Drained the gun of all its power supply. Now it's just a piece of junk."

They turned to look at the remains of the Dalek as the Doctor examined it with his sonic.

"How are the Daleks alive?" Autumn asked, "You said they were all dead."

"One minute they're the greatest threat in the Universe," Jack commented, "The next minute they vanish out of time and space."

"The went off to fight a bigger war..." the Doctor told them, "The Time War..."

"I thought that was just a legend." Jack remarked, surprised.

"So did I." Autumn remarked, before she met the Doctor she hadn't been sure that Time Lords even existed.

"I was there." the Doctor remarked, "The war between the Daleks and the Time Lords. With the whole of creation at stake. My people were destroyed, but they took the Daleks with them. I almost thought it was worth it. Now it turns out they died for nothing."

"But, what are we gonna do?" Autumn asked, knowing this was hard for the Doctor, but they had to concentrate on the situation at hand, "We were barely able to kill one of them and there's THOUSANDS out there." she shook her head, "What do we do?"

"No good stood round here chin wagging!" he said cheerfully, jumping up, "Human race, you'd gossip all day. The Daleks have got the answers, let's go and meet the neighbors."

"Don't go out there!" Autumn warned but he just stepped out the doors into the Dalek spaceship.

"Exterminate!" the Daleks cried, fire their lasers at the Doctor, but the force field around the TARDIS kept him safe, "Exterminate! Exterminate!"

"Is that it?" the Doctor asked as Jack and Autumn cautiously poked their heads out the TARDIS door, "Useless! Nul points." he lent against the TARDIS and spoke to Autumn and Jack, "It's all right, come on out. That force field can hold back anything."

"Almost anything." Jack corrected as he and Autumn stepped out of the TARDIS.

"...yes, but wasn't gonna tell them that." the Doctor replied, "Thanks."

"Sorry." Jack apologized.

"D'you know what they call me in the ancient legends of the Dalek Home world?" the Doctor asked, striding forward to address the Daleks, "The Oncoming Storm. You might've removed all you emotions... but I reckon that right down deep in your DNA, there's one little spark left. And that's fear. Doesn't it just BURN when you face me? So, tell me, how did you survive the Time War?"

"They survived through me." a booming voice called.

The Doctor span around, startled, to see a giant Dalek, the mutant inside visible through a glass case.

"Autumn... Captain..." he began, "...this is the Emperor of the Daleks."

"You destroyed us, Doctor." the Emperor remarked, "The Dalek Race died in your inferno, but my ship survived, falling through time, crippled but alive."

"I get it." the Doctor cut in.

"Do not interrupt!" a Dalek exclaimed.

"Do not interrupt!" another repeated.

"Do not interrupt!"

"I think you're forgetting something." the Doctor commented, "I'm the Doctor. And if there's one thing I can do, it's talk. I've got five billion languages, and you haven't got _one_ way of stopping me. So if anybody's gonna shut up, it's YOU!" the Daleks shuffled back in fear and the Doctor turned to the Emperor, calm again, "Okey doke. So, where were we?"

"We waited here in the dark space, damaged but rebuilding." the Emperor told him, "Centuries passed, and we quietly infiltrated the systems of Earth. Harvesting the waste of humanity. The prisoners, the refugees, the dispossessed, they all came to us. The bodies were filtered, pulped, sifted. The seed of the Human Race is perverted. Only one cell in a billion was fit to be nurtured."

"So, you created an army of Daleks out of the dead." the Doctor said.

"But, that would mean..." Autumn began, "...that they're half human."

"Those words are blasphemy!" the Emperor roared.

"Do not blaspheme!" the Daleks cried, "Do not blaspheme!"

"Everything human has been purged." the Emperor informed them, "I cultivated pure and blessed Dalek."

The Doctor shook his head, "Since when did the Daleks have a concept of blasphemy?"

"I reached into the dark and made new life." the Emperor said, "I am the God of all Daleks!"

"Worship him!" the Daleks chanted, "Worship him! Worship him!"

"They're insane!" the Doctor told Autumn and Jack, "A hundred years hiding in silence, that's enough to drive anyone mad." he walked towards the Daleks, a speck of pity in his eyes, "But it's worse than that. Driven mad by your own flesh. The stink of humanity." he shook his head, "You hate your own existence. And that makes them more deadly than ever." he turned to Emperor, "We're going."

"You may NOT leave my presence!" the Emperor yelled as the three of them walked towards the TARDIS.

"Stay where you are!" a Dalek ordered.

The Doctor grinned mockingly at them and shut the door in their face, still able to hear them through it.

"Exterminate!"

The Doctor lent his head against the TARDIS doors as he continues to hear the Daleks cries, knowing how helpless the situation was.

XXX

"Turn everything up." the Doctor ordered as he, Autumn and Jack strode out of the TARDIS onto Floor 500 of the Game Station, "All transmissions, wide open, full power. Now! Do it!"

"What will that do?" Davitch asked as they got to work.

"Stops the Daleks from transmatting on board." the Doctor answered, "How did you get on? Did you contact Earth?"

"Well, we tried to warn them," he replied, "But all they did was suspend our license because we stopped the programs."

"And the planet's just sitting there, defenseless." the Doctor remarked, when he noticed Lynda standing there, "Lynda, what're you still doing on board?" he rounded on Davitch, "I told you to evacuate everyone."

"She wouldn't go." Davitch told him.

"Didn't wanna leave ya." Lynda commented, smiling at him.

"There weren't enough shuttles anyway," the female programmer told him, "Or _I_ wouldn't be here... we've got about a hundred people stranded on Floor Zero."

"Oh, my God." Davitch gasped as he stared at the computer screen, "The Fleet is moving. They're on their way."

A few minutes later, the Doctor was frantically ripping armfuls of wires out of the desks as the others watched, "Dalek plan, big mistake." the Doctor remarked, speaking quickly, "Because what have they left me with? Anyone? Anyone? Oh, come on, it's obvious. A great big transmitter, this station. If I can change the signal, fold it back, sequence it, anyone?"

"Oh, my God." Autumn remarked, realizing what he was going to do and rushing over to help him.

"You've gotta be kidding." Jack commented, working it out as well.

"Give them both a medal!" the Doctor said.

"A Delta Wave?" Jack asked incredulously.

"A Delta Wave!" the Doctor agreed excitedly.

"What's a Delta Wave?" Lynda asked.

"It's a wave of Cassadyne energy." Autumn told her, "Stand in front of one and your brain gets fried."

"And this place can transmit a MASSIVE wave!" the Doctor exclaimed, "Wipe out the Daleks."

"Well, get started and do then!" Lynda remarked.

"Trouble is," the Doctor frowned, "Wave this size, building this big, brain as clever as mine, should take about, ooh, three days? How long till the Fleet arrive."

Davitch glanced at the screen, "Twenty-two minutes."

The Doctor frantically pulled another cable out from underneath the desk and inspected the end of it before he looked up and beamed at them all.

XXX

"We've now got a force field so they can't blast us out of the sky." Jack remarked as he and the others gathered around the computer, Autumn and the Doctor still working on the Delta Wave behind them, "But that doesn't stop the Daleks from physically invading."

"Do they know about the Delta Wave?" Davitch asked.

"They'll have worked it out at the same time." Jack answered, "So, if they want to stop the Doctor, that means they've got to get to this level, 500." he indicated to the diagram on the screen, "Now, I can concentrate the exstrapolator around the top six levels, 500 to 495. So, they'll penetrate the station below that at level 494 and fight their way up."

"Who're they fighting?" Davitch asked.

"Us." Jack replied.

"And... what're we fighting with?"

"The guards had guns with basic bullets, that's enough to blow a Dalek wide open."

"There's FOUR of us." the female programmer remarked skeptically.

"Then let's move it!" Jack ordered, "Into the lift! Isolate the lift controls!"

The programmers rushed off while Lynda approached the Doctor and he stood up to meet her.

"I, I Just wanna say, um... thanks," she told him, "I s'pose. And... I'll do my best!"

"Me too." he replied.

They awkwardly tried to find the right way to say goodbye, not sure if they should hug or not. Autumn watched them in amusement as she continued to work on the Delta Wave when they finally decided to just shake each others hands.

Lynda walked away and Jack approached them, ready to say goodbye.

"It's been fun!" Jack said, trying to keep it light, but failing, "But I guess this is goodbye." he swallowed hard before turning to the Doctor, "Wish I'd never met you, Doctor!" he grinned, cupping his face, "I was much better off a coward."

He kissed him on lips, leaving the Doctor slightly shocked, before he approached Autumn who was still knelt down working on the Delta Wave.

"Don't you dare kiss me, Jack." she remarked, not looking up.

"Wasn't going to." he replied as she stood up and turn to face him, "You'd kill me before the Daleks even got the chance."

Autumn rolled her eyes, smiling sadly, before she pulled him into a hug, "Goodbye, Jack." she whispered.

"Bye, Autumn." he said, pulling away and patting both hers and the Doctor shoulders before turning to walk away, "See ya in hell."

He walked away and both the Doctor and Autumn watched him go, sad to see their friend head off into almost certain death, before they turned back to their work.

"I wish time travel wasn't so awkward." Autumn remarked a few minutes later, "That we could take the TARDIS back to a few weeks earlier and start the Delta Wave then."

"Soon as the TARDIS landed in the second, we become part of events." the Doctor remarked, "Stuck in the time line."

"I know." Autumn muttered.

"There's another thing the TARDIS could do..." he commented, "I could take us away... we could leave. Let history take its course. We go to Marbella in 1989."

Autumn shook her head, "We can't do that."

He looked up at her softly, "Never even occurred to you, did it?"

"Nope." she answered honestly.

The continued to stare at her softly, love in his eyes when the computer whirred in the background and he looked over at it, suddenly alert, "The Delta Wave's started building. How long does it need?" he ran over to the computer and pressed a few buttons before his face fell.

Autumn glanced over at him, "What's wrong?" she asked, "How long does it need?" he didn't reply so she stood up started walking over to him, "Doctor?"

The Doctor suddenly stood up before she could reach the computer, eyes bright, "Autumn Skies, you're a GENIUS!"

"What did I do?" she asked, smiling slightly as he walked over to her.

"We can do it!" he exclaimed, "If I use the TARDIS to cross my old time line... yes!" he ran off into the TARDIS and Autumn followed, confused.

"What are you talking about?" she asked, walking up to the console.

"I'll explain in a minute." he told her, before gesturing to a lever, "Hold that down and keep position."

Autumn looked at him suspiciously for a moment before she pulled the lever down, "What does it do?" she asked him, watching him very carefully, sensing something was off.

"Cancels the buffers." he told her absentmindedly as he fiddled with the monitor, "If I'm very clever, and I'm more than clever, I'm BRILLIANT, I might just save the world. Or rip it apart...

"But how?" Autumn asked.

"I'll tell you in a minute." he said, heading for the doors, "I've just got to go and power up the Game Station. Hold on."

He ran out of the TARDIS and onto Floor 500 hundred and stopped, slowly turning around to face the TARDIS.

He had to do this. He _had_ to. The Delta Wave could be built on time but he couldn't refine it, it would kill everything in it's path. Including everyone on Earth and everyone on the Game Station, including _Autumn_.

And he couldn't let that happen. He couldn't let her die, he couldn't be the reason she died, not _her_.


	38. The Parting of the ways: Bad Wolf

The Parting of the Ways: Bad Wolf

Autumn stood in the TARDIS, still holding down the lever and staring at the doors suspiciously.

XXX

The Doctor held up his sonic screwdriver and pointed and the TARDIS, making it start to dematerialise.

XXX

Autumn stared up at the rotor and realized what was happening, "No!" she yelled, "Doctor!"

XXX

The Doctor ignored Autumn's shouts and continued to point his sonic at the TARDIS.

XXX

Autumn ran to the doors and tried to open them, but they were locked, "Doctor!" she yelled, absolutely FURIOUS at him, "Doctor, let me out right now!"

XXX

The Doctor watched as the TARDIS began to fade away.

"You bastard!" he heard Autumn shout angrily, but he could hear her voice cracking, giving up the fact that she was more upset than angry "Let me out now!"

The TARDIS faded in to nothing and the Doctor stared at the empty space for a moment before he lowered his sonic and turned away, so _tired_.

XXX

Autumn continued to bang on the doors, tears forming in her eyes, when a hologram of the Doctor appeared behind her and she span around when she heard him speak.

"This is Emergency Program One." the hologram stated, "Autumn, now listen, this is important. If this message is activated it can only mean one thing. We must be in danger. And I mean fatal. I'm dead or about to die any second with no chance of escape."

"You're not going to die!" Autumn growled under her breath, storming over to the console and trying to work out how to fly it even though she knew it was pointless, only Time Lords could fly a TARDIS, it was far to complicated for any other species to even contemplate it without a Time Lord to help.

"And that's okay." the hologram continued, "Hope it's a good death. But I promised to look after you, and that's what I'm doing. The TARDIS is taking you home." at those words Autumn frowned and turned to face the hologram, confused, "Well, the closest thing you have to a home. The TARDIS will take you back to 2020. You have people there that will take care of you."

"You're wrong." she said, tears falling from her eyes, "The TARDIS is the closest thing I have to a home." she swallowed hard, " _You're_ the closest thing I have to a home."

She didn't know how, but he had wormed his way into her heart. She had promised herself that she would never love someone again, no matter what kind of love, because it would hurt so much when she lost them just like when she had lost her family. But he had gotten past her defenses and... she loved him.

"Oh, fuck." she whispered to herself. She would just realize how she felt about him right when she was about to lose him.

"And I bet you're fussing and moaning now, typical." the hologram continued, "But hold on and just listen a bit more." Autumn sighed and turned away from the console to face the hologram, even though it had it's back to her, "The TARDIS can never return for me. Emergency Program One means I'm facing an enemy that should never get their hands on this machine. So this is what you should do: let the TARDIS die." Autumn walked away from the hologram and lent against one of the coral struts, done listening, "Just let this old box gather dust. No one can open it; no one will even notice it. Let it become a strange little thing standing on a street corner. And over the years, the world will move on and the box will be buried. And if you want to remember me, then you can do one thing. That's all. One thing." the hologram suddenly turned to look at her and she looked up at it, a vulnerable look on her face, "Have a good life. Do that for me, Autumn. Have a fantastic life."

A tear fell down Autumn's face as the hologram faded away. She scoffed to herself and hastily wiped the tear from her face. She glanced at the doors and took a deep breath before stepping outside them, finding herself in front of her apartment building in 2020.

She stared at it a moment before her face suddenly crumpled and she started sobbing. She lent against the TARDIS for support as the tears kept coming. She gasped for breath, pain searing onto her heart as she fully realized the weight of what just happened to her.

"Autumn?" she heard a voice call and she sniffled, looking up to see Cindy approaching her with a concerned look on her face, "Autumn, are you okay?" she put a comforting hand on Autumn's arm but Autumn just shook her head and surged forward, sobbing into Cindy's shoulder, making the brunette's eyes widen with surprise and concern.

"What's wrong?" She asked, but Autumn just shook her head and continued sobbing.

XXX

"Autumn, I've called up the internal laser codes." Jack said over the intercom as the Doctor continued to work on the delta wave alone, "There should be a different number on every screen, can you read them out to me?"

"She's not here." The Doctor told him, not looking up from his work.

"Of all the times to take a leak!" Jack remarked, "When she gets back, tell her to read me the codes!"

"She's not coming back."

"What d'you mean?" Jack asked, "Where'd she go?"

"Just get on with your work." he replied

"You took her home," Jack realized, "Didn't you?"

"Yeah." he agreed and Jack nodded, not really surprised, but realizing how hopeless their situation was.

"The Delta Wave..." Jack began, "Is it ever gonna be ready?"

"Tell him the truth, Doctor." the Emperor Dalek's voice boomed and the Doctor looked up to see the Emperor projected onto the screen, "There is every possibility that the Delta Wave could be complete, but no possibility of refining it. The Delta Wave must kill every living thing in it's path, with no distinction between Human and Dalek. All things will die. By your hand."

"Doctor..." Jack began warningly when the Doctor stayed silent, "The range of this transmitter cover the entire Earth."

"You would destroy Daleks and Humans together." the Emperor Dalek remarked, "If I am God, the creator of all things, then what does that make you, Doctor?"

"There are colonies out there." the Doctor pointed out, "The Human Race would survive in some shape or form, but you're the only Daleks in existence. The whole universe is in danger if I let you live." he turned to look at Jack on the other screen, "Do you see, Jack? That's the decision I've got to make for every living thing. Die as a human or live as a Dalek. What would you do?"

"You sent her home." Jack remarked, knowing that the Doctor would never be able to do it if Autumn was still here, "She's safe. Keep working"

"But her will exterminate you!" the Emperor Dalek exclaimed.

Jack grinned, "Never doubted him, never will."

The Doctor grinned back and leaped up, walking over to the screen, "Now, you tell me, 'God of all Daleks', 'cos there's one thing I never worked out. The words 'Bad Wold', spread across time and space. Everywhere, drawing me in. How'd you manage that?"

"I did nothing." the Emperor replied.

"Oh, come on." the Doctor said skeptically, "There's no secrets now, your worship."

"They are not part of my design." the Emperor insisted and the Doctor paused, staring at him, baffled, "This is the truth of God."

The Doctor's eyes wondered to the words 'Bad Wolf Corporation', which were written on the wall in huge letters.

XXX

Autumn on the sofa in her and Cindy's apartment as Cindy made them each a cup of coffee in the kitchen. Autumn had explained what had happened a few hours ago, after Cindy had led her into the apartment.

She had stopped crying a while ago, but the emptiness inside was still there and she had been sitting, staring at nothing for hours.

"Oh, by the way." Cindy began from the kitchen, "A lot of mail came for your when your were gone, it's on the table."

Autumn's eyes moved from the wall, over to the coffee table where a small stack of mail sat. She picked the piled up and shuffled through them not really paying attention to any of them, when something caught her eye on the left hand corner of the envelope.

Her eyes widened and she stood up throwing the envelope onto the table and rushing out of the apartment.

"Autumn!" Cindy shouted after her as the door slammed shut.

She frowned glancing around the room and catching sight of lone envelope on the table. She walked to the table and picked it up, frowning as she read the back and realized that it was just a newsletter from some company or other.

She went to put letter back on the table when she paused, noticing something on the envelope.

Printed on the top left hand corner were the words 'Bad Wolf'.

XXX

Autumn ran down the street, panting, until she reached the TARDIS. She pulled on the doors, but then shook her head and fumbled in her pocket for her key.

"Autumn!" Cindy called catching up with her just as she put the key in the lock, "What are you doing, you know you can't fly that thing."

"I know." Autumn nodded, "But there must be some other way."

"This is about those words on that envelope, isn't it?" Cindy asked as she followed Autumn inside the TARDIS, "'Bad Wolf'. In Cardiff the Doctor said you had heard those words everywhere you went, but that it was just a coincidence."

"Well, he was wrong." Autumn told her, looking around the console for anything that could help her, "That station, back in 100, 200, it was called Bad Wolf."

"So?" Cindy asked, not seeing the significance.

"So, I thought we were being warned." Autumn told her, "About the Daleks, but if the words are here, now, then it can't be a warning, it's got to be a message."

"Telling you what?" Cindy wondered.

"That I can save him."

XXX

The Doctor frantically worked on the Delta Wave when the Satellite shuddered violently.

XXX

"The Doctor told me that the TARDIS was telepathic." Autumn remarked, "So, we just need to get it to listen."

"How are we supposed to do that?" Cindy asked, skeptically

"We need open the heart of the TARDIS." Autumn replied.

Cindy eyebrow's raised, "We need to _what_?"

"When we were in Cardiff, this panel opened," she gestured to a part of the console, "Remember?"

"Yeah..." Cindy nodded, "And there was a really bright light..."

"The Doctor called it the heart of the TARDIS." Autumn remarked, "If we open it, the maybe we can tell it take me back, or it can tell me how to save the Doctor."

"Autumn..." Cindy began, "You do remember that the last time someone looked into it that they turned into an egg, or did you just forget that part?"

"That was because Margaret wanted a new life." Autumn argued, "She didn't want to be a killer, but her family forced her to. The TARDIS knew that, so it gave her what she wanted most, a normal life. The TARDIS will see that what I want the most is to save the Doctor."

Cindy hesitated, "...What if you can't save him?" she asked, "What if the TARDIS takes you back and you... die?"

"I have to take that risk." Autumn told her, "Because I have nothing else to live for." Cindy looked doubtful and Autumn sighed, "Look, Cindy, I'm gonna do this with or without you, but I would really appreciate your help. You saw how I was before I met the Doctor. I was broken and angry just like he was because we had lost everything, but somehow, someway... we made each other better. And..." she swallowed hard, "We need each other."

Cindy stared at her for a moment, never having seen Autumn so openly emotional, "You love him." she commented, not realizing what she had said till it came out of her mouth, "Don't you?"

Autumn shook her head, "That's not important right now." she told her, inadvertently answering her question, "Are in or not?"

Cindy nodded, not even hesitating anymore. Autumn was her friend and she knew that if this was the other way round... Autumn would have called her crazy and locked in one of the cells back at the base, but it wasn't the other way round, and she and Autumn were completely different people, "I'm in."


	39. The Parting of the Ways: The End

The Parting of the Ways: The End

A long thick chain connected Cindy's car to panel covering the heart of the TARDIS. Cindy slammed her foot down on the accelerator, trying to pull the panel of with the car. The moved forward sightly and smoke billowed from underneath, but the panel didn't budge

"Come on!" Cindy yelled in determination.

"It's not working!" Autumn exclaimed from where she stood next to the panel.

Cindy slammed the accelerator again and the chain started becoming tauter and tauter. Autumn started at the panel with anticipation as the chain shuddered before it suddenly snapped.

"No!" she yelled in frustration, throwing her hands us in the air before putting her head in her hands.

XXX

"Jack, how're we doing?" the Doctor asked through the intercom.

"495 should be good." Jack replied, "I like 495."

XXX

Autumn sat in the captains chair, defeated, as Cindy walked over and put a hand on her shoulder.

"I'm sorry, Autumn." Cindy told her, "But, did you really think it would work? I mean Time Lords were geniuses, and the heart of the TARDIS is probably one of the most dangerous things in the Universe, do you really think it could be opened by an average 21st century car from Earth?"

"There has to be a way, though." Autumn argued, "I can't just give up."

Cindy stayed silent for a while, before and idea formed in her head. She glanced at Autumn before she stepped outside the TARDIS without her even noticing.

XXX

"Lynda!" the Doctor called through the intercom, "What's happening on Earth?"

"The Fleet's descending..." she replied, "They're bombing whole continents. Europa... Pacifica... the New American Alliance... Australasia's just... gone."

XXX

Cindy marched inside the TARDIS, "Hey!" she called, and Autumn looked up, "Come outside!"

Autumn frowned, but stood up, "Why?"

"I've got something to show you!" She grinned and ran outside, leaving Autumn to follow her.

Autumn stepped outside and her eyes widened when she saw the huge truck standing outside. She turned to Cindy, "Where the hell did you get that?"

Cindy rolled her eyes, "Where d'you think?"

"Brian." Autumn realized, with a small smile. Brian was the leader of the alien defense team she had worked for when she was taken back to 2020.

"Mmhmm." Cindy hummed in agreement, "So, do you think it's strong enough?"

"Only one way to find out." Autumn replied.

XXX

"You'll be all right, Lynda." the Doctor reassured her after she'd fearfully told him how the Daleks had found her, "That side of the station's reinforced against meteors."

"Hope so!" Lynda replied, trying not to sound terrified, "Know what they say about Earth Workmanship..."

A few moments later, the Doctor looked up in shock as he heard Lynda scream.

"Last man standing!" Jack told him through the intercom a few minutes later, "For God's sake, Doctor, finish that thing and kill them!"

"Finish that thing and kill mankind." the Emperor Dalek countered, appearing on the screen once again.

The Doctor paused in his work a moment before continuing work frantically.

XXX

The chain was once again attached to part of the TARDIS console, but now the other end was attached to the huge truck that Cindy had acquired. The chain was stretched to it's limit, the truck proving to be stronger than the car.

"Faster!" Autumn yelled out to Cindy, who put her foot down and growled with effort.

Autumn watched the panel as it started to creak, occasionally shouting encouragements to Cindy. Eventually, the panel was ripped open and a blinding light poured out.

The truck surged forward as the chain went slack.

Autumn stepped froward to look into the light and a breeze began to blow back her hair as the light began to flow into her eyes in two golden streams.

"Autumn!" Cindy yelled as she ran towards the TARDIS, but the doors suddenly shut and the TARDIS began to dematerialize, golden light shining from the windows. Cindy stared at the TARDIS, confusion and worry filling her.

XXX

The Doctor threw equipment together, running around like a madman to get it finished.

XXX

The TARDIS hurtled through the vortex at an unnatural speed.

XXX

Autumn stared into the golden light of the heart of the TARDIS, as though she were hypnotized.

XXX

"It's ready!" the Doctor exclaimed in amazement as he pick up a lever. He looked up as Daleks began to file into the room, surrounding him, "You really wanna think about this. 'Cos if I activate the signal, every living creature dies."

"I am immortal." the Emperor Dalek declared.

"D'you wanna put that to the test?" the Doctor challenged.

"I want to see you become like me." the Emperor replied, "Hail the Doctor, the Great Exterminator!"

"I'll do it!" the Doctor threatened angrily, placing his hands on the lever.

"Then prove yourself, Doctor." the Emperor replied, "What are you, coward or killer?"

The Doctor's hands tensed on the lever as he shook, his face scrunching up in pain before he let go, "Coward. Any day."

"Mankind will be harvested because of your weakness."

"And what about me? Am I becoming one of your angels?"

"You are Heathen." the Emperor remarked, "You will be exterminated."

The Doctor nodded "Maybe it's time."

He closed his eyes, ready, when the sound of the TARDIS materializing filled the room.

"Alert!" a Dalek cried, "TARDIS materializing!"

The Doctor's eyes snapped open and spun around in shock.

"You will not escape!" the Emperor bellowed.

The doors to the TARDIS fly opened and a blinding light seeped out, causing the Doctor to throw a hand of his eyes. Autumn stood in the doorway, golden light surrounding her as the Doctor stared, awestruck, before he stumbled backward falling to the ground as she stepped forward.

"What've you done?" the Doctor asked, fearfully.

Autumn stared at him, her eyes shining gold, "I looked into the TARDIS." she told him, her voice reverberating, "And the TARDIS looked into me."

"You looked into the Time Vortex," he realized, a crippling fear filling him as he realized what this would do to her, "Autumn, no one's meant to see that."

"This is the abomination!" the Emperor exclaimed.

"Exterminate!" a Dalek cried, firing a laser at Autumn, but she just held up her hand and reversed it back into the Daleks gun, making the Doctor stare up at her in amazement.

"I am the Bad Wolf." Autumn declared, "I create myself. I take the words..." Autumn waved her hand and the words 'Bad Wolf' rose of the wall and floated away, "A message to lead myself here."

"Autumn, you've got to stop this." the Doctor told her urgently, "You've got to stop this now." Autumn just stared straight ahead, as though she didn't hear him, "You've got the entire vortex running through your head. You're gonna burn."

Autumn suddenly turned to look at him, "I need you safe." she told him and the Doctor stared, taken aback, "My Doctor. Protected from the false God."

"You cannot hurt me." the Emperor remarked, "I am immortal."

"You are _tiny_!" Autumn spat furiously, "I can see the whole of time and space, every atom of your existence, and I divide them." she raised her hand and all the Daleks started to disintegrate, "Everything must come to dust... all things. Everything dies. The Time War ends."

"I will not die." the Emperor's voice rose with fear, "I cannot die!"

Autumn stared straight ahead her arms raised, as every Dalek in the whole fleet, including the emperor, were disintegrated.

"Autumn, you've done it." the Doctor remarked, desperate to save her, "Now stop. Just let go."

"How can I let go of this?" she asked, "I bring life..."

"But this is wrong!" the Doctor cried, terrified, "You can't control life and death!"

"But I can." she replied, "The sun and the moon... the day and the night." her voice started to trembled, "But why do they hurt...?"

"The power's gonna kill and it's my fault." the Doctor said desperately, anguished that the one person that he wanted to save, no the one person that he _needed_ to save, from this was going to die.

A tear fell from Autumn's eye, "I can see everything." the Doctor raised his head to look at her, "All that is... all that was... all that ever could be."

The Doctor stood up suddenly, staring at her, "That's what I see. All the time. And doesn't it drive you mad?"

"My head..."

"Come here."

"...It's killing me..."

The Doctor her hands, "I think you need a Doctor." he gazed into her eyes, before he gently pressed his lips to hers, the power flowing out of her eyes and into his. They pulled away from each other and Autumn's eyes fluttered closed, collapsing against the Doctor.

He layed her on the floor carefully and stood up, facing the TARDIS. He closed his eyes and opened his mouth and the vortex streamed out of him and back into the TARDIS. He opened his eyes again, smiling slightly, before he knelt down over Autumn and stroked her face tenderly.

XXX

Autumn blinked awake and sat up, looking around she realized she was on the floor of the TARDIS. She slowly stood up, "What happened?" she asked.

"Don't you remember?" the Doctor wondered from where he stood on the other side of the console.

Autumn frowned straining to remember, "I don't know... there was... singing? I think..."

"That's right!" the Doctor said cheerily, "I sang a song and the Daleks ran away."

"... I think I was with Cindy..." she remarked, still trying to remember, "...in 2020..."

Unseen by Autumn, the Doctor glanced at his hand, which shimmered with a golden light before fading away.

"...I can't remember." Autumn shook her, giving up on trying to remember.

"Autumn Skies." the Doctor suddenly said, smiling sadly, "I was gonna take you to so many places. Barcelona, not the city Barcelona, the planet. You'd love it. Fantastic place they've got dogs with no noses." he laughed and Autumn smiled, rolling her eyes slightly, "Imagine how may times a day you end up telling that joke, and it's still funny!"

"Well, why can't we go, then?" she asked.

"Maybe you will." he replied, "And maybe I will. But not like this."

"What are talking about?" Autumn frowned slightly, confused, "You're not making sense."

"I might never make sense again!" he remarked, "I might have two heads. Or no head!" he laughed and Autumn stared at him, bemused, "Imagine me with no head! And don't say that's an improvement..." Autumn rolled her eyes, both of them knew she would never say anything like that, "But it's a bit dodgy, this process. You never know what you're gonna end up with-" he suddenly clutched his stomach as he was propelled backwards with a blast of golden light.

"Doctor!" Autumn cried in concern, rushing towards him.

"Stay away!" he yelled and she stopped staring at him when a look of realization crossed her face.

"Oh, my God!" she gasped, "You're..." she didn't finish her sentence, she didn't need to they both knew what was happening.

He was regenerating.

"Yeah." he nodded, confirming her fears.

She shook her head, "What happened?"

"I absorbed all the energy of the Time Vortex," he told her, trying not to let her hear the pain in his voice, "And no one's meant to do that! Every cell in my body's dying."

"Can't we do something to fix it?!" she asked desperately. She knew what regeneration was, she knew what would happen. He would change, and while he would be the same man, this version of him would die.

"Yeah, I'm doing it now!" he reminded her.

"No!" she shook her head, "I mean something else."

He shook his head, "It's too late." he looked at her sadly, "But, before I go..." Autumn screwed her eyes up in pain, "I just wanna tell you, you were fantastic." Autumn opened her eyes and looked at him again as he smiled at her, "Absolutely fantastic. And d'you know what?" she shook her head as he grinned, "So was I."

She smiled slightly, nodding when orange energy exploded from his skin and he threw his head back. Autumn stumbled backwards, shielding her eyes with her arm when the energy suddenly faded and a new man stood in the Doctor place.

"Hello!" he exclaimed, "Okay, oo." he gulped and ran his tongue over his teeth as Autumn stared at him in amazement, when they regeration changed you... they really meant it, "New teeth. That's weird." he turned to look at her again, "So, where was I? Oh, that's right! Barcelona."

Autumn just stared at him and he grinned.

* * *

 _I'm so sorry, I have no excuse for not updating this story, except that it doesn't interest me at the moment. I had the last six chapter already written so I thought I might as well upload them. I am planning to do a sequel, but not for a long long time._

 _sorry, TFA_


End file.
